Food Culture in France

Food Culture in France
Julia Abramson
Greenwood Press
Food Culture in
France
France. Cartography by Bookcomp, Inc.
Food Culture in
France
JULIA ABRAMSON
Food Culture around the World

Ken Albala, Series Editor
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut · London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abramson, Julia.
Food culture in France / Julia Abramson.
p. cm.—(Food culture around the world, ISSN 1545–2638)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–313–32797–1 (alk. paper)
1. Cookery, French. 2. Food habits—France. I. Title.
TX719.A237 2007
641.5'944—dc22 2006031524
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2007 by Julia Abramson
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006031524
ISBN-10: 0–313–32797–1
ISBN-13: 978–0–313–32797–1
ISSN: 1545–2638
First published in 2007
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The publisher has done its best to make sure the instructions and/or recipes in this book
are correct. However, users should apply judgment and experience when preparing recipes,
especially parents and teachers working with young people. The publisher accepts no
responsibility for the outcome of any recipe included in this volume.
Contents
Series Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Timeline xiii
1. Historical Overview 1
2. Major Foods and Ingredients 41
3. Cooking 81
4. Typical Meals 103
5. Eating Out 117
6. Special Occasions 137
7. Diet and Health 155
Glossary 169
Resource Guide 171
Selected Bibliography 175
Index 185
Series Foreword
The appearance of the Food Culture around the World series marks a
definitive stage in the maturation of Food Studies as a discipline to
reach a wider audience of students, general readers, and foodies alike.
In comprehensive interdisciplinary reference volumes, each on the food
culture of a country or region for which information is most in demand,
a remarkable team of experts from around the world offers a deeper
understanding and appreciation of the role of food in shaping human
culture for a whole new generation. I am honored to have been asso-
ciated with this project as series editor. Each volume follows a series
format, with a chronology of food-related dates and narrative chapters
entitled Introduction, Historical Overview, Major Foods and Ingredients,
Cooking, Typical Meals, Eating Out, Special Occasions, and Diet and
Health. Each also includes a glossary, bibliography, resource guide, and
illustrations. Finding or growing food has of course been the major pre-
occupation of our species throughout history, but how various peoples
around the world learn to exploit their natural resources, come to esteem
or shun specific foods, and develop unique cuisines reveals much more
about what it is to be human. There is perhaps no better way to under-
stand a culture, its values, preoccupations, and fears, than by examin-
ing its attitudes toward food. Food provides the daily sustenance around
which families and communities bond. It provides the material basis for
rituals through which people celebrate the passage of life stages and their
connection to divinity. Food preferences also serve to separate individuals
viii Series Foreword
and groups from each other, and as one of the most powerful factors in
the construction of identity, we physically, emotionally and spiritually
become what we eat. By studying the foodways of people different from
ourselves we also grow to understand and tolerate the rich diversity of
practices around the world. What seems strange or frightening among
other people becomes perfectly rational when set in context. It is my hope
that readers will gain from these volumes not only an aesthetic appre-
ciation for the glories of the many culinary traditions described, but also
ultimately a more profound respect for the peoples who devised them.
Whether it is eating New Year’s dumplings in China, folding tamales with
friends in Mexico, or going out to a famous Michelin-starred restaurant
in France, understanding these food traditions helps us to understand the
people themselves. As globalization proceeds apace in the twenty-first
century it is also more important than ever to preserve unique local and
regional traditions. In many cases these books describe ways of eating that
have already begun to disappear or have been seriously transformed by
modernity. To know how and why these losses occur today also enables us
to decide what traditions, whether from our own heritage or that of oth-
ers, we wish to keep alive. These books are thus not only about the food
and culture of peoples around the world, but also about ourselves and who
we hope to be.
Ken Albala
University of the Pacific
Acknowledgments
For two decades and more, I have been traveling regularly to France to live
and work, to research and write. In this time, many people have opened
their doors to me and shared their meals and food lore, their conversation
and friendship. I am profoundly grateful for this hospitality and for these
many personalized introductions to the food cultures of France. Of all my
debts, that to my cousin Charlotte Berger-Grenèche and to Franç ois Depoil
is by far the greatest. Discerning eaters and accomplished cooks; convivial,
generous hosts; and thoughtful participants in the culture of their own
country, Charlotte and Franç ois more than anyone else have taught me
what it means to eat à la française. This book is for them, and it is for my
parents, who nourished my interest in food from the very beginning.
Thanks are due to the wonderfully supportive community of scholars
interested in food history and in France. Beatrice Fink, Barbara Ketcham
Wheaton, and Carolin C. Young shared with me their enthusiasm for
French food and have steadfastly encouraged mine. Ken Albala, editor
for the Greenwood Press world food culture series, and Wendi Schnaufer,
senior editor at the Press, made it possible for me to write this book. I
am grateful to Kyri Watson Claflin, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Alison
Matthews-David, Norman Stillman, and Charles Walton, who read drafts
of these chapters. Layla Roesler responded with grace, wit, and precision
to what must have seemed like endless questions about her family life.
Through her good humor this book has been much enriched.
x Acknowledgments
For the photographs I am indebted to Philippe Bornier, Hervé Depoil,

Janine Depoil, Nadine Leick, Arnold Matthews, and Christian Verdet.
They have been generous beyond measure for the sake of friendship, food,
and conversation across cultures. My warm thanks especially to Hervé
Depoil for doing le maxi.
Finally, colleagues and students at the university where I have taught
for the last seven years have supported my engagement in the study of
food history and cultures. At the University of Oklahoma a special thank
you goes to Paul Bell, Pamela Genova, Andy Horton, Helga Madland,
Edward Sankowski, Zev Trachtenberg, and of course to Sarah Tracy. For
their enthusiastic participation, hard work, and frank questions, I thank
the undergraduate students who have taken my seminars on food and cul-
ture (Honors College) and on French food and film (Program in Film
and Video Studies) and the graduate students in my course on French
gastronomic literature (Department of Modern Languages, Literatures,
and Linguistics). Many of the passages in this book were written with my
students in mind. Their unfailing intellectual curiosity fueled my own
enthusiasm for the topics covered in this volume, and their questions
usually led us all directly to the heart of the matter.
Introduction
Nearly every American has some idea about French food. For those who
dine out, the ideal for an elegant, glamorous restaurant meal is often
a French one. For curious home cooks, the many French cookbooks
published in the United States since the mid-twentieth century have
guided experiments in the kitchen. Arm-chair travelers will have read
the great American chronicles of life and food in France, such as Samuel
Chamberlain’s columns in the early issues of Gourmet magazine, M.F.K.
Fisher’s memoirs, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. The export
of Champagne and adaptations of the breakfast croissant have made these
items standard units in the international food currency. For those who
have traveled abroad, a plate of silky foie gras, a bite of milky crisp fresh
almond, or a fragrant piece of baguette still warm from the oven has per-
haps been a gastronomic revelation. What interested eater would not be
moved by French food? In poorer kitchens, generations of resourceful
cooks have perfected ingenious yet practical ways of transforming the
meanest bits of meat and aging root vegetables into rich stews, nourish-
ing soups, and tantalizing sausages. The subtle coherence of flavors and
the dignified unfolding of the several-course meals that are now standard
are at once seductive, soothing, and stimulating. Of course, a few clichés
persist, as well. Snails and frogs feature in the cuisine, however, it is an
error to imagine that these murky creatures play a large role in every-
day eating. Since the Second World War, affluence has reshaped the
diet for much of the French population. Nonetheless, people are much
xii Introduction
more likely to shop for food at one of the many discount stores than at
picturesque outdoor markets, although these are practically a national
treasure. That the French drink only rarefied bottled spring waters (when
not drinking wine)is in fact one of the new myths.
So what do the 60 million French of today really eat on a daily basis?
Here is the essential question that this book addresses. To understand
the full significance of the table customs, the book also treats the issues
of why and how foods are eaten. Why is it that the different dishes in
an everyday meal are eaten successively in separate courses, rather than
appearing on the table all at once? How is it possible to eat this succes-
sion of foods without becoming uncomfortably full, from meal to meal,
and desperately unhealthy, over time? How is it that the French cultivate
pleasure rather than count calories, yet in fact enjoy an unusually high
standard of health, as a nation? Why, at noon, does this population of pro-
ductive, hard-working, secular individualists march practically in lockstep
to the dining room, causing nearly everything from Dunkerque to Cannes
to grind to a halt for the sacred lunch break? Why do the French them-
selves regard eating lunch in school and business cafeterias as an anomaly,
when the country actually has the best-developed and most heavily used
canteen system in Europe?
Food Culture in France answers these questions and many others. As
the aim has been to provide a three-dimensional picture of food customs,
the approach is inclusive. The chapters that follow draw on a wide range
of sources, from cookbooks and personal experience, to recent studies by
ethnologists and sociologists, to the writings of historians and cultural
critics. Throughout, an attempt is made to provide both the historical
information necessary to illuminate contemporary food culture and full
descriptions of today’s practices, including workday meals, celebration
meals, attitudes toward health, public policy addressing food quality,
trends in restaurant cooking, and changing views of wine. The recipes
that appear in the text correspond to a few of the typical dishes that come
under discussion. The bibliography at the end of the volume lists the ref-
erences consulted for each chapter and includes a list of cookbooks. It is
hoped that these resources as well as the selection of Web sites and films
will provide the reader with a point of departure for further exploration.
Bonne lecture (happy reading) and bon appétit!
Timeline
ca. 30,000 B.C.E. Old Stone Age nomads hunt big game and gather
plants for food.
ca. 16,000–14,000 B.C.E. Charcoal and ochre drawings of bulls and reindeer in
the Lascaux Caves in the Dordogne show main Ice
Age food sources.
10,000–9000 B.C.E. Food sources change as glaciers recede. Reindeer re-
treat to colder northern regions. Forest animals such
as deer and wild boar multiply.
8000 B.C.E. The bow and arrow, and the companionship of do-
mesticated dogs, make hunting easier. Forests provide
berries, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. Humans eat mol-
lusks, including snails.
6000 B.C.E. New Stone Age people farm and tend herds. Domes-
ticates include sheep, goats, cattle, corn, barley, and
millet.
800 B.C.E. Iron Age Celts fit iron cutting edges on ploughs used
to till soil, improving farm production.
600 B.C.E. Greek merchants from Phocaea establish a colony at
Massilia (Marseille) where they plant olive trees for
oil and grape vines for wine, elements in the Mediter-
ranean diet.
xiv Timeline
51 B.C.E. Julius Caesar annexes Gallic lands to the Empire.

A Roman-style forum or market and public meeting
space is added to each Gallic town.
19 B.C.E. The Roman-engineered Pont-du-Gard aqueduct daily
transports 20,000 cubic meters (about 26,000 cubic
yards) of water to urban areas. Gallic regional special-
ties include grain (Beauce), sheep (Ardennes), geese
(Artois), and wine (Roussillon, Languedoc).
481–511 C.E. The Salic legal code issued in Paris under King Clo-
vis specifies punishments for anyone who attacks a
neighbor’s grape vines.
585 Famine forces innovation in bread-making. In The
History of the Franks (593–94), chronicler Gregory
of Tours notes that people supplemented wheat flour
with pounded grape seeds and ferns.
780 Saint William of Gellone, one of Charlemagne’s
paladins, forces Saracen warriors to retreat from the
southern territories. Legend has it that he concealed
his troops in wine barrels.
822 The abbot Adalhard of Corbie records that monks are
adding hops flowers to their ale, making true beer.
1000–1300 People clear forest and drain marshland to cultivate
grains for bread. The population grows.
1110 Louis VI (The Fat) allows fishmongers to set up stands
outside his palace walls in Paris. The site becomes the
market Les Halles.
1148, 1204 Knights and soldiers return from the First and Second
Crusades bringing lemons and spices: saffron, carda-
mom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace and nutmeg,
cumin, and sugar.
1150–1310 City and monastic trade fairs in the Champagne re-
gion are international. Flemish and Italian merchants
arrive with spices and other exotics.
1315, 1317 Cannibalism and crime follow widespread famines.
1341 The Valois monarch Philip VI (1293–1350) intro-
duces the grande gabelle (salt tax) in the north.
1468 Renaissance elites are conspicuous consumers. The
feast for Charles the Bold of Burgundy’s wedding
Timeline xv
includes 200 oxen, 63 pigs, 1,000 pounds of lard,

2,500 calves, 2,500 sheep, 3,600 shoulders of mutton,
11,800 chickens, 18,640 pigeons, 3,640 swans, 2,100
peacocks, and 1,668 wolves.
1476 King Louis XI (1461–1483) decrees that butchers
slaughter pigs and sell raw pork, but chaircutiers (char-
cutiers) sell cooked and cured pork and raw pork fat.
1486 The manuscript Le Viandier by Guillaume de Tirel
(Taillevent) appears in print as an early cookbook.
1492–1494, 1502 Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus encounters
foods hitherto unknown in the Old World: sweet
potatoes, peppers, maize, chocolate, and vanilla.
1534 Physician and priest François Rabelais publishes the
novel Gargantua, about a race of giants. Massive feasts
are central to the social satire.
ca. 1600 Peasant families who survived the bubonic plague and
Hundred Years War and Wars of Religion clear land
to plant new crops: cold-hardy buckwheat and New
World maize.
1606 Henri IV (1589–1610) declares his wish that “every
peasant may have a chicken in the pot on Sundays.”
Hunger and poverty are widespread.
1651 François Pierre de La Varenne publishes the cook-
book Le Cuisinier françois. For flavoring, he privileges
herbs and onions over spices.
1667 Courtiers now use forks, but Louis XIV (1643–1715)
uses his fingers to eat.
1669 Suleiman Aga, Turkish ambassador to the court of
Louis XIV, serves coffee at Versailles.
1672 Coffee is sold at a temporary café at the St. Germain
fair. Within the decade the Café Procope, the first
successful café in France and still in business today,
will open in Paris.
1681 Physicist Denys Papin, in residence in England,
invents the pressure cooker. The “digester” efficiently
reduces solid foods nearly to liquid.
1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes (1598), Protes-
tants flee, and the country reverts to strict observance
of Catholic feast and fast days.
xvi Timeline
1709 An unusually cold winter sets in early and kills crops.

Famine and grain riots break out.
1735 Louis XV (1715–1774) favors small, intimate suppers
over state banquets and personally makes omelets and
coffee for selected guests.
1760s Modern-style restaurants, with menus and private
tables, open in Paris.
1775 Peasants and urban dwellers riot to protest grain
shortages.
1785 With the help of Louis XVI, the naturalist Antoine-
Auguste Parmentier promotes the still-unpopular
potato as an alternative to grains.
1787 Most people subsist on bread, which costs nearly
60 percent of their income.
1789 Louis XVI sends troops against the newly formed
National Assembly, and a mob retorts by attack-
ing the Bastille prison. Rioting abounds during the
Revolution and hunger is prevalent.
1790 The National Assembly abolishes the hated and
much-abused salt tax, la gabelle.
1793 Louis XVI dies at the guillotine. In prison since late
January 1791, he has been eating several-course meals
while famine plagues France.
1803 Grimod de la Reynière publishes the first narrative
restaurant guide for Paris. Two years later he modern-
izes the meal: he recommends serving dishes one by
one in sequence, so that they can be enjoyed hot.
1804 Nicolas Appert opens a vacuum-bottling factory. He
preserves meats, vegetables, and fruits to provision
Napoleon’s troops.
1808 Cadet de Gassicourt publishes a “gastronomic map.”
Pictures of apples and cider bottles in Normandy and
ducks at Alençon visually connect taste to place.
1814–1815 At the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic
wars, diplomat, bishop, and noted gourmand Charles-
Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord wines and dines
European ministers. They concede to his demands
for the restored Bourbon monarch, Louis XVIII. The
Timeline xvii
great chef Marie-Antoine Carême is Talleyrand’s

right-hand man for political strategy at table.
1830 French forces take Algiers. The colonial empire
will expand to include Senegal (1857), Indochina
(1859–1863), Tunisia (1881), and Morocco (1912).
1859 Ferdinand Carré demonstrates his ammonia absorb-
tion unit, the technology that was the basis for the
first industrial refrigerators.
1861 Louis Pasteur applies heat and pressure to sterilize
milk.
1870 Prussian troops occupy the capital, and desperate
Parisians resort to eating zoo animals.
1870s Grape phylloxerae devastate vines across France.
1883 The network of trains encourages peasants to farm
beyond self-sufficiency and to specialize. The Orient
Express makes its inaugural run from Paris to Constan-
tinople, with several-course meals served in elegant
restaurant cars.
1892 Jules Méline draws up protectionist tariffs for agricul-
tural production.
1903 Chef Auguste Escoffier publishes Le guide culinaire,
which simplifies and systematizes the sauces and
cooking methods that compose elegant cuisine.
1905 A new federal law prohibits fraud in the sale of food.
The law will stand until it is integrated into the
European food safety code in 1993.
1919 Meat prices escalate. Import duties on sugar make it
unaffordable to most.
1927 Parliament rules that only wine bottled within the
demarcated Champagne area may be labeled as
“Champagne.”
1940 France capitulates to Germany during the Second
World War. Food prices are at a premium. Bread is
rationed. The black market for food flourishes.
1943 Under German occupation during the Vichy period,
rationing allows for 1,200 calories per day per person.
Life expectancy drops by eight years.
xviii Timeline
1949 Bread rationing is lifted. The weekly newspaper Le

Monde runs a column on dining called “The Pleasures
of the Table” signed “La Reynière.” Robert Courtine’s
pseudonym evokes Grimod de la Reynière, the First
Empire restaurant guide author.
1965 Half of all French households own a refrigerator.
1977 Chef Michel Guérard serves cuisine minceur—light or
diet food—at his spa and restaurant. He emphasizes
small portions, avoids salt and animal fats, and favors
lean meats, vegetables, and fruits.
1990s Press reports defend the national cuisine in a society
marked by Europeanization, globalization, and the
presence of immigrant cultures.
1999 To protest against junk food and the presence of
foreign corporate interests in the local food chain,
farmer José Bové vandalizes a partially constructed
McDonald’s restaurant in Millau.
2002 Chef Paul Bocuse and baker Lionel Poilâne
unsuccessfully lobby Pope John Paul II to remove
gourmandise (gluttony) from the list of the Seven
Deadly Sins.
2003 The Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris serves its one-
millionth canard à presse (roasted pressed duck).
2004 Debate continues over whether genetically modified
foods and advertising for fast food should be banned
in France and Europe.
2005 All automatic vending machines are gone from public
schools by the time the fall term begins. The law (of
August 2004) that called for this measure aimed to
reduce the consumption of sweets and sugared drinks
associated with rising obesity levels among children
and young people.
2006 Avian flu detected in chickens in Pas-de-Calais.
Consumption of chicken drops in March, then rises
again.
1
Historical Overview
ORIGINS
The earliest peoples in what is now France likely garnered the largest
portion of their food from plants. About 500,000 years ago, nomadic fore-
runners of modern humans ranged north from Africa into western Europe.
These hunter-gatherers foraged in field and forest for berries, nuts, roots,
and leaves. When climate change caused the extinction of big game, they
hunted horses and aurochs. Paleolithic or Old Stone Age (earliest times
to 6000 B.C.E.) paintings on cave walls from about 35,000 to 15,000 B.C.E.
at Lascaux, Font-de-Gaume, Cosquer, Chauvet, and Niaux show animal
food sources and other creatures—lions, rhinoceros, mammoths—that
probably had spiritual significance. Around 8000 B.C.E. Stone Age peoples
domesticated dogs as hunting companions.
During the New Stone Age, people made a gradual transition from
foraging for food to farming. The innovations of agriculture and pottery that
define the Neolithic period came west from the Fertile Crescent to Europe
in about 6000 B.C.E. People now cultivated emmer and einkorn (old types
of wheat) and naked barley. During winter, they stored extra grain in pits
dug into the ground and in pots. In cooler northern regions, rye and oats
flourished, first as wild grasses, then as tended crops. Peas, chickpeas, and
lentils came under cultivation. Neolithic populations managed animals,
in addition to hunting. They herded cattle, sometimes grazing the herds
seasonally in different locations. Pigs, sheep, and goats were also kept and
may have been moved according to the same practice of transhumance.
2 Food Culture in France
Boar, beaver, hare, hedgehog, and quantities of snails added to the list of
animal protein eaten in the Neolithic period. Populations living on the
Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts and on rivers harvested shellfish and
fish.
The invention of pottery changed cooking and storage in the New
Stone Age. People made wide-mouthed vessels using bits of bone, shell,
sand, flint, or grog (pulverized burnt clay) as a tempering medium. The
additions strengthened the clay so that the pots could be placed directly
on a fire. This added another technique to spit-roasting, drying, smoking,
and heating mixtures by dropping in hot rocks. The end of the Neolithic
period saw the incorporation of metals into the arsenal of tools, including
cooking implements. The use of copper, bronze (about 1800–700 B.C.E.),
and then iron (from about 700 B.C.E.) mark shifts toward technology that
maintained more populous civilizations.
GREEKS ON THE CÔTE D’AZUR

In about 600 B.C.E. a few Phocaeans (Greeks from Asia Minor) looking
for new territory established colonies that they called Massilia (Marseille)
and Agde, bringing their eating customs and essential foods. During the
Age of Metals, the Greeks had developed the civilization that underpins
much of Western culture, including literary and philosophical traditions
and both urban and pastoral ways of life. The ideal diet of classical
antiquity was based on three cultivated foods: wheat, grapes, and olives.
When the Phocaeans arrived in the new colonies with their vines and
fruit, this was the earliest introduction of the Mediterranean diet based
on bread, wine, and oil.
In the colonial centers of Greek civilization, elite diners participat-
ing in a symposion or convivial, shared banquet in a private home drank
wine mixed with water only after eating, and valued conversation as
an integral part of the meal. Wealthy Greeks loved meat (beef, lamb,
pork), but it was not considered everyday fare, and the large domesticates
were killed ceremonially. After the required sacrifices had been made
to appease the gods, meat was carefully distributed or else sold off in
portions equal in size, with little concern for cut or texture. Cheese fea-
tured frequently in meals. Fish, eels, and shellfish were eaten, along with
the all-purpose salty flavoring sauce garos (Roman garum or liquamen)
made of fermented fish.
For the common person, the building blocks for most meals were barley
or wheat and pulses. The grains were eaten as porridge or baked into bread
or unleavened biscuit if ovens were available. Pulses in the everyday diet
Historical Overview 3
included lentils, chickpeas, and fava or broad beans. Greeks brought with
them knowledge of the all-important vegetables onion, garlic, and capers.
They cultivated cabbages, carrots, gourds, and early forms of cauliflower
and lettuce, which were made into salads and cooked dishes. Figs and
grapes, apples, pears, plums, quinces, and pomegranates were the best-
known fruits. As the cities grew, so did their institutions, including places
for eating out such as kapêleia or taverns that served wine and inexpensive
bar food.
CELTIC ANCESTORS
Tribes of Indo-Europeans that originated in Hallstadt (present-day
Austria) and swept west by around 700 B.C.E. developed a diet based on
meat, milk, and ale, as well as grains. The Greeks called these peoples
Galatai or Keltoi, giving the name Celts; the Romans would name them
Gauls. The city of Paris derives its name from the Celtic Parisii tribe that
settled in the Île-de-France. The prehistoric Celts (their language was
oral) have a special place in the collective imagination as the ancestors of
the modern French.
Celtic civilization was based on farming and animal husbandry. Tribes
occupied swathes of land that measured about 1,200 to 2,000 square
kilometers (about 450 to 750 square miles). The land was left as open fields
that members of the tribe worked in common. Many of the Celtic deities
such as the matrons or mother-goddesses were associated with fertility
and with flowers, fruits, and grains. Celts in northern Europe mined
iron and lead, gold and silver, and developed advanced metalworking
techniques such as soldering and the use of rivets. To support farming,
they manufactured innovative iron ploughs, harrows, and reapers. They
wrought a range of cooking and eating utensils, including flagons, cups,
bowls, cauldrons, spits, grills, and serving platters. At their most populous,
the Celts in Gaul probably numbered between 6 and 9 million. They
did not construct a unified empire or kingdom. Rather, governance was
decentralized within tribes headed by a warrior elite and the families that
composed each tribe.
Celts ate meat primarily from domesticated oxen or cattle and pigs.
Sheep, goats, horses, and dogs were less common. It appears that they
domesticated the hare and species of ducks and geese. There is a popular
idea that Celts feasted constantly on roast wild boar. Children know this
story from the famous cartoons that Goscinny and Uderzo published
beginning in the early 1960s about the rotund character Astérix the
Gaul and friends, including a benevolent druid. It is certainly true that
wild boar roamed the forests, and Celts hunted them in self-defense, but
hunting was restricted to elites. For food, the tribes relied on their fields
and barnyards. They mined salt and developed techniques for preserving
meat and fish through salting, drying, and smoking. Butchers specialized
in making hams and sausages and were greatly admired for their facility
with curing pork. They made cheeses, drank milk from their herds, and
brewed ale (beer without hops) from grain. Meats, fat from meat and milk
(lard, butter), and cool-weather grains associated with the Celts typified
the diet in what later became northern France.
Ties between the Celtic and the Mediterranean civilizations enlarged
the diets. Celts traded metal jewelry, coins, ingots, and tools; amber and
salt; hides from their animals; meat products; and slaves with neighboring
tribes and with other populations. They cultivated some grapes in the
north, but they could not get enough of the heady southern wines that
they traded up from Massilia and Rome. Athenaeus, the Greek writer from
Naucratis (Egypt) who moved to Rome at the end of the first century,
remarked in his Deipnosophistae (Professors at Dinner, ca. 200–230) that the
Celts were heavy drinkers who tossed back their wine undiluted with water.
Where the Greeks and Romans kept wine in amphorae (clay jars), Celts
used wooden barrels for more convenient storage and transport. Stored
in amphorae, wine took on the pitchy or resinous flavor of the jar seal.
Exposed to wooden barrels, wine drunk by the Celts must have developed
some flavors like those prized by today’s oenophiles. The familiarity bred
by commerce between the different populations also prepared the way for
Rome’s annexation of Celtic lands to the Empire in 51 B.C.E.
ROMAN GAUL
The fertile, productive Celtic territories were a temptation not to be
resisted by the Romans. Since the inception of the republic in the fifth
century B.C.E., Rome ballooned, subsuming far-off Dacia (Romania),
North Africa, Syria, and Arabia as provinces; the first imperial dynasty
was established in 27 B.C.E. Urban Romans were consumers in need of
provisions, and the constantly campaigning legions of the vast military
machine required a solid diet of wheat bread, wine, olive oil, meat,
cheese, and vegetables. Celts, for their part, provoked ravenous Rome,
as they periodically migrated in search of land. Bellicose Cisalpine (from
“this side of the Alps,” nearest Rome) populations sacked Rome in 387
(or 390) B.C.E. and made incursions elsewhere. The legions butted heads
with the tribes for two centuries before the general Julius Caesar was sent
to quell them. In 52 B.C.E., he won a decisive victory against the Gallic
leader Vercingétorix. A year later, the “three Gauls” or large divisions of

Celtic territories had become provinces, with the usual military outposts
throughout. Rivers demarcated Gallia Belgica from Celtica (later Gallia
Lugdunensis) and Aquitania. Beyond the Rhine lay Germania and to the
south Provincia (later Narbonnensis) and Cisalpina.
The Romans did much to unify and urbanize Celtic lands. Using the old
tribal divisions of land as a basis for latifundia or large farms with attached
estates, and the oppida or hill-forts for civitates or administrative structures,
they centralized political conduits. The Romans built roads for their
military but also to the benefit of traders. They undertook huge public
projects in durable stone for the cities. Amphitheatres at Orange, Nîmes,
and Arles are still used today for concerts, operas, plays, and bull-fighting.
City walls, aqueducts (such as the Pont-du-Gard and those built to supply
Vienne), and the remains of public baths also persist.
For Gallo-Romans, dining habits at their most luxurious drew on Greek
manners, gastronomic specialties from across the Empire, and the agricultural
riches of Gaul itself. Roman trade provided links even to India and China,
and so a few people had knowledge of quite exotic foods. Greek ways were
considered the most elegant and civilized. The colony at Massilia was a
destination for Romans as for Romanized Celts—Gallo-Romans—who
sought an education and cosmopolitan finish. Eating customs evolved from
the Roman adaptations of Greek precedents. Wealthy citizens designed their
houses to follow the Roman style, with a courtyard and triclinium or dining
room. The food at a convivium or dinner party could be elaborate, with any-
where from two to seven courses. The gustatio or promulsis (first course) fea-
tured vegetables, fish, and eggs. The mensae primae (main course or courses)
offered meats and poultry and were accompanied by wine mixed with water.
A cena (fancy dinner) finished with mensae secundae or fruits, nuts, and
desserts. Elegant diners reclined rather than sat. Propped up on their left
elbows, they politely touched food only with the right hand. Among the
educated, attitudes toward diet and health were shaped by the prevailing
theory of the humors, which were supposed to be balanced through diet.
Continuing Hippocratic tradition, the Greek physician Galen, who worked
in the Roman context during the second century, recommended choosing
foods with qualities (hot, cold, dry, wet) appropriate for one’s personal
balance of the four bodily humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm)
as the way to maintain good health.
At least for the wealthiest eaters, trade enlarged the food choice pro-
vided by the local produce. Emmer, soft and hard wheats, and spelt were
available in Gaul. Sophisticated wine drinkers tracked yearly variations
in quality, and they sought vintages from the best locations across the
provinces. For vegetables, there were leeks, lettuces, mallow, cucumbers,

gourds, rocket, asparagus, turnips, and beets. The list of fruits and nuts
grew ever longer as produce was imported from afar. Figs, apples, pears,
grapes, and sun- or smoke-dried raisins were basics. Sorb apples (related
to serviceberries), sour cherries, peaches (from Persia), arbutus fruits,
dates, hazelnuts, walnuts, chestnuts, pistachios, and pine nuts (pine
kernels) were eaten. The Mediterranean gave fish and shellfish including
mackerel, wrasse, tuna, bass, octopus, sea urchin, and scallops; oysters from
present-day Brittany and Normandy were esteemed a delicacy. Garum or
fish sauce—made off the Atlantic coast from fermented mackerel and
tuna—and allec or fish pickle were common. Snails were popular, and
wild boar and deer caught on the hunt were prized. Domestic sheep, goats,
and cows gave milk for cheese as well as meat. Guinea fowl (originally
from Numidia), partridges, hens, and pheasant gave eggs and provided
roasts. Spices were valued as flavorings in elite cooking; some were used
in perfumes. Among the herbs and spices, lovage nearly always combined
with black or long pepper, traded from India in exchange for gold. Other
herbs included rosemary, myrtle, bay, saffron, rue, parsley, thyme, juniper
berries (native to Gaul), cumin, caraway, celery seed, pennyroyal, mus-
tard, mint, and coriander.
In the late third and fourth centuries, the Romans encouraged British
Celts to migrate back to the Continent to defend depopulated Brittany.
Today, the few remaining Breton speakers trace their culture back to the
Celts. By about the fifth century, Latin penetrated even to rural areas,
preparing the way for the development of French. In the modern language,
the Celtic heritage echoes primarily in words that pertain to agriculture
and in place names.
FRANKS FROM RHINELAND

As the exhausted, overextended Roman Empire crumbled during the
fourth century, Germanic tribes crossed west over the Rhine River to settle
in Gaul, bringing a new wave of northern influence on diet. Federations
and alliances already existed among Germans, Celts, and Gallo-Romans.
The Roman army that defeated Attila the Hun in 451 near Troyes was
anchored by tribal Germans—Franks, Visigoths, and Burgundians. During
the last imperial centuries, decadent emperors, crushing taxes, plague,
and famine added to the general unrest and misery. Gallic elites left the
cities, contributing to urban decline. During the fifth century, Germanic
Visigoths crossed out of Italy and were settled in Gallic Aquitaine. The
tribal leader Odoacer the Goth deposed the last Roman emperor in the
Shellfish merchant bringing coastal

oysters and mussels to the Saint
Antoine market in Lyon. Courtesy
of Hervé Depoil.
West in 476. But it was the powerful Franks who exerted the most lasting
influence within future French territory.
Although the Franks made periodic migrations, they farmed and herded
in the intervening years, like the Celts. They fished, gathered berries and
nuts from the forests, grew wheat and barley, and made ale, the favored
beverage; some Germanic pagan rites required the conspicuous display of
ale casks in the middle of dwellings. Hardy spelt, although lower in yield
and in gluten than wheat, was the preferred grain. Franks made hard cider
from apples and grew rye. They hunted game and ate domesticated meat,
including poultry, which they thought gave them strength to wage war.
They roasted meat and made stews, using barley or oats to thicken the
mixture. They steadfastly preferred their own butter and lard over southern
olive oil, and the men also used butter to condition their characteristic
long hair and flowing beards. Both Romans and Christians complained
about the reek of rancid butter that was said to announce a German.
Romanized Gauls considered themselves elegant and civilized, in
contrast to the Germans. They took pride in Gallic particularities and in
the classical heritage, as well as in their own discernment. This is clear
in the fourth-century writings of Decimus Agnus Ausonius. His pastoral

poem Mosella catalogues the edible fish in the tributary of the Rhine
named in the title (the Moselle), and he wrote an encomium to the wines
and oysters of his native Bordeaux. Romans characterized Germans as
uncouth rustics and fickle, though formidable, fighters. The disparaging
comments should be taken with a grain of salt. The moralist Salvian of
Marseille, whose writings date to about 440, had no special liking for
the Germans. Yet he observed that educated and well-born individuals
around him were casting their lot with the Goths and Franks. In a time of
unrest, they found humane treatment at the hands of the barbarians, while
noble Rome had turned uncivilized.1 A century later, the physician and
ambassador Anthimus balanced the classical heritage with the Germanic
present. His treatise De observatione ciborum (On the Observance of Foods),
addressed to the Frankish king Theuderic (d. 534), draws on the cookbook
author Apicius for recipes and on Galen for medical advice. Yet Anthi-
mus makes concessions to the intended reader and the available food sup-
ply. Meats and beer are recommended; local river salmon and trout are
indicated; Roman fish sauce is categorically forbidden.2
GALLO-CHRISTIANS
In Gaul Christian food practices that evolved from Judaic and
Mediterranean traditions had the distinguishing cast of asceticism. In the
first and second centuries, mystery religions involving the worship of a
dying god (such as Isis or Mithras) who was then reborn became popular.
Of these, Christianity had the greatest staying power. By the end of the
fourth century under Theodosius, it became the official religion of the
Roman Empire. Christianity penetrated first in the southern parts of Gaul
where the Germanic traditions held less sway. Early Eucharistic (thanks-
giving) meals borrowed from Jewish Passover seders and Greco-Roman
banquets. Diners reclined. A variety of foods were eaten in courses.
Ceremonial cups of wine were drunk throughout. Bread was preferred
over meat. The practice of self-denial and also self-definition through
the refusal of habits perceived as typical characterized the early Christian
approach to food. The rejection of meats, like the recommendations for
sexual abstinence, is an example of asceticism as well as a populist touch
and concession to necessity. The meatless diet avoided sacrificial carnage,
in particular of the lamb that Jews offered up in temples.
Bread and wine, instead of meat, acquired a powerful symbolic association
to sacrifice in Christianity. Christian ritual was overlaid on pagan celebra-
tions of grain and the harvest. As part of the Catholic rite of communion,
a piece of bread, later the thin unleavened wafer known as the host, was
ingested along with a sip of wine. By miraculous transubstantiation, the
bread and wine ostensibly turned into the body and blood of Christ. The
communicant directly incorporated his god. Outside of church ceremony,
eating bread at daily meals recalled its blessed, Eucharistic counterpart.
Bread and wine evoked the body and blood of Christ. Through symbolism,
the rite of communion recast sacrifice on a supernatural level, avoiding
actual bloodshed while fostering a penchant for the mystical. To eat a
meal was to commune with fellow Christians and with the Christian god,
to consume him, and to become him.
As the number of monasteries and nunneries increased and bishops
consolidated power, institutional pronouncements set ideals for Gallo-
Christian food practice. The virtuous fasted on Fridays. Starting in the
fourth century, fasting was required for the period before Easter (Lent).
Other days were added in rhythm with the natural seasons and older
pagan holidays. In extreme cases, saintly figures miraculously abstained
from food for long periods. More commonly, Christians fasted for short
periods while charitably giving alms and donating food. In the early sixth
century, the Rule of Benedict of Nursia (d. ca. 540), father of monasticism
in the West, mandated hospitality to guests and to any pilgrim as a basic
tenet of monastic life. The principles of inclusion and generosity were not
always put into practice. In defiance of Jewish principles of fellowship,
early Christian tolerance, and Greek and Gallo-Roman conviviality,
the Council of Agde that met in 506 forbade Christians from sharing a
meal with “Jews and heretics,” on pain of excommunication. Benedict
prescribed an acceptable diet for a monk as bread, servings from two
cooked dishes, fruits or vegetables in season, wine in limited quantity;
meals were to be taken twice daily in summer and once in winter.
If asceticism and fasting characterized early Christianity, indulgence
featured in monastic feasting. Clerics could not bear arms, but they gave
feasts to build up their reputations. To be sure, Gallic bishops financed
banquets to alleviate the hunger of the poor, but the ability to host a
feast also signaled power. Some won privileges for their monasteries to
import luxury foods such as pepper, cinnamon, and foreign nuts. Despite
the Christian principle of disdaining commerce, monasteries participated
in trade networks, buying products imported through the Mediterranean
ports. Having productive kitchen gardens and well-stocked larders, they
could entertain elite visitors. Monks and nuns earned a reputation as food
experts. In later centuries the stock figure of the gluttonous monk became
a target for satirists. He remained so through the early eighteenth century,
when the power of the Catholic Church in France began to decline.
Feasting and fasting traditions—extreme eating—reflect the natural

alternation of cycles of plenty and shortage, tied to the seasons and the har-
vest cycle. They also reveal contradictions inherent to the Gallo-Christian
cult of late antiquity. The problem was how to define moderation according
to Christian principles. Greeks and Romans explained the need for modera-
tion at table through principles of health. The Christian was burdened with
original sin. For the Christian, the flesh was impure. How can the duties of
the host to be generous reconcile with the obligation of the penitent to live
sparingly?
CAROLINGIAN RENEWAL
After the Roman period, the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish tribal
leaders converted to Christianity and shifted the capital from Romanized
Lyon to northern, Frankish Paris. The Frankish kingships were military,
personal, and quite ill managed. At length, a powerful palace mayor
(administrator) to the king overthrew his employer, giving rise to the new
dynasty of Carolingians, the most influential of whom was Charlemagne
(r. 768–814). Charlemagne waged war to enlarge his dominions across
Europe, set himself up as protector of the Church and of the faithful, and
was crowned Emperor on Christmas day in the year 800 by Pope Leo III
in Rome. The social hierarchy based on landholding, wealth, and rank
would underpin the feudal castes of the next centuries. Unlike in the
Roman era, no system of direct taxation was used. The acquisition of land
cemented power for titled individuals such as counts and dukes, who then
exacted tributes from the peasants working their terrain. Nobles, like the
Saxons and other peoples conquered in war, made annual gifts to the
emperor. Charlemagne made donations to the Church.
Sophisticated systems of exchange also flourished in the marketplace.
Monastic fairs at Paris, Langres, Flavigny, Tournus, Cormery, St. Maixent,
and St. Benoît de Cessieu brought in revenue, linked merchants to mon-
asteries and the king, and encouraged international trade. Exotic products
show the reach of the trade networks. The Frankish liturgy included the
ceremonial use of chrism (balsam or balm mixed with oil), for instance.
Carolingian documents describing the abbey at St. Gall (in present-day
Switzerland) indicate a richly provisioned establishment. Spices were
available, and the diet included imports such as lemons and dates.
In the Carolingian era, as in ancient times and up through the Rev-
olution of 1789, most people relied on grains for food. Barley, wheat,
and millet were the most common. Near the Rhine valley, oats and rye
became important. Pulses complemented the grain. Beer and wine were
the beverages of choice. Water was not dependably safe, so children also
drank diluted alcohols. Hoarding and speculation on grain and wine aggra-
vated shortages. Famine was common. Difficult conditions fostered tales
about the supernatural provision of food and drink. In earlier centuries,
spontaneous generation was said to have produced loaves, fish, commu-
nion wine, or holy oil. Frankish tastes color provisionary miracles of the
Merovingian and Carolingian eras. According to the vita or life written
in the ninth century, Saint Sadalberga (ca. 605–670), born near Langres,
miraculously filled a vat with beer just in time for the visit of the abbot
who assisted her to found a monastery.3
Attempting to counter hunger, Charlemagne fixed prices for bread, but
this measure did not hold market rates steady. His Capitulare de villis vel
curtis imperii, or decrees regarding the imperial domains, sought to remedy
shortages by improving agriculture. The capitularies listed plants that
Charlemagne wanted to be cultivated throughout the empire, such as
cucumbers, artichokes, chickpeas, fava beans, mustard, radishes, turnips,
beets, cabbages, lettuce, rocket, and various herbs.4 He exhorted cooks,
bakers, butchers, millers, and makers of garum, cheese, cervoise (ale),
hydromel (fermented honey drink), and mustard to work carefully in a
clean environment. It is thanks to Carolingian monastic scribes that
many ancient texts are known today, including the oldest surviving
copies of Apicius’s cookbook De re coquinaria (On Cookery, ca. fourth
century), taken during the ninth century. The plants and foods listed
in the capitularies were familiar from antiquity. Encouraging agriculture
and food production was part of the effort to renew the achievements of
imperial Rome within the contemporary Christian empire. Charlemagne
himself was said to have been a careful eater and a moderate drinker.5
The narrative left by his biographer Einhard shows the effort to negoti-
ate customs from Frankish warrior feasts (involving meat from hunted
game and plenty of alcohol) with both classical moderation and Christian
asceticism.
After the Serment de Strasbourg or Strasbourg Oath of 842, Carolingian
territories were divided into three parts. West Francia covered much of
the territory of contemporary France. In the feudal era, peasants would
work land and trades in exchange for protection given by the landowner.
A warrior class of chevaliers or knights who were supposed to aid the lords
and monarch fought their way into that class to obtain their own heredi-
tary titles and landowning rights. Dynastic competitions were keen in the
Middle Ages. The Capetian kings (r. 987–1322) expanded their Parisian
stronghold to include the counties of Flanders and Boulogne. In the ninth
and tenth centuries, Normans or Norsemen (“northern” or Scandinavian
warriors and sailors) descended in boats to plunder and scout for land.
They settled in the northwest (today’s Normandy), invaded Britain, then
merged with Aquitaine and Britain to form the powerful Anglo-Norman
or Angevin empire. In the south, the counts of Provence defended their
territory.
GRAIN AND SWORDS

The agricultural and population expansion that lasted about 300
years until the mid-thirteenth century owed much to the absence of the
military class. After Pope Urban II’s call in 1095 from Clermont-Ferrand
to take Jerusalem from the Turks, Christian warriors left in droves to
crusade against the Muslim “infidel.” Armed knights were apt to skirmish
over small slights, posing a constant threat to peasants, priests, and the
more peaceable nobles. With the knights conveniently gone on crusade,
peasants reclaimed land through cutting forests and draining marshes.
Grain farming increased to newly opened fields in the north and east.
Three-crop rotations, with winter and spring plantings next to a fallow field
that was sometimes grazed (and thus manured), improved use of the soil.
New wheeled plows were more versatile and efficient. Heavy workhorses
bred from Carolingian cavalry animals—the knights’ battle chargers—
pulled plows faster than the old-fashioned teams of oxen. Improved food
production supported a larger population. From the start to the end of the
Capetian dynasty, the population tripled to about 20 million.
During the era of the crusades, so productive at home, people imagined
“France” as a place and an idea. Writing about the Capetians, the abbot
Suger of St. Denis forsook the customary phrase “king of the Franks” for
the new description “king of France.” The Old French epic Chanson de
Roland (Song of Roland) looks back in time to recount a battle against
Moors in Spain that was fought during the era of Charlemagne. The
contemporary language of the written version (ca. 1100), however, refers
to the homeland as la douce France (sweet France).
From its association with pagan Rome and the god Bacchus, wine
became the symbol of Christian France. During the Middle Ages,
monks grew grapes and produced wine for medicinal use and to offer
to travelers and pilgrims whom the laws of hospitality obliged them to
host. Today, the link between Christian succor and wine is recalled by
events such as the wine auction held every November at the Hôtel-Dieu
or historic hospice in the town of Beaune in Burgundy. The auction is
now commercial, but it was originally conceived to benefit the charity
hospital, authorized by Pope Eugenius IV in 1441 and staffed by nuns.
There was literally little spice in the gustatory life of the peasant. The
feudal era had been relatively prosperous. As a result of the ravages of the
Hundred Years War (1337–1453) fought against England and the Black
Death or bubonic plague (1348–1349), which killed 8 million people,
the society was now in bad shape. Meat-eating declined among the peas-
ants. In rural areas and among the poor everywhere, the basic foodstuffs
were interminable bowls of gruel and bread made from wheat or maslin
(wheat mixed with rye and barley). Peasants drank hard apple cider in the
northwest, cervoise or beer in the northeast. Wine was grown as far north
as the Paris basin—there were vineyards at Montmartre and Belleville.
Inexpensive piquette (wine made from the second pressing of the fruit)
was available in much of the country. During the Angevin period (ca.
1150 to 1450), the best wines from Gascony and Bordeaux were exported
to British cellars.
For survivors of the plague and wars, diet and living conditions did
improve until about the mid-sixteenth century. Eating meat, especially
pork, was not uncommon among peasants, although hunting game in
forests remained restricted to the aristocracy; poaching was punishable by
execution. Staples varied by region and according to local taste. White
wheat bread was rare, generally found in wealthy homes. For most, dark
bread was made of wheat supplemented with other grains. In Brittany
blé noir or sarrasin (buckwheat) mixed with water or milk was used to
make gruel. In the South and on Corsica, people ate chestnuts, sometimes
grinding the nuts into a flour. Nutritious oats were widely grown, although
primarily to feed horses. Peas, beans, and chickpeas supplemented the
grains and gave more protein. Cheese was a staple in the Auvergne.
Cod fishing in North Atlantic waters provided a new, cheap staple that
could be eaten during the lean days of Lent, when meat was forbidden.
Stockfisch or salted dried cod, as well as fresh fish, made their way across
the country from ships that docked at the western ports of Dieppe, Le
Havre, Honfleur, and Nantes. Until 1537, the distillation of wine was the
province of apothecaries, who used the resulting brandy as a medicine.
Once Franç ois I granted the privilege of manufacture to vinegar makers,
the market for brandies and fortified wines quickly expanded.
Around 1550, the climate changed. During the little ice age that lasted
through the next three centuries, harsh winters regularly led to inadequate
grain harvests, food shortages, high prices, and hunger.
Charitable institutions and paying establishments alike existed to
provide venues for meals. Voluntary distribution of food was often
associated with collective settings such as hospices and hospitals. The
ill, elderly, and destitute received assistance in the form of meals of soup
and bread. Convents, monasteries, and generous lords allocated food and
wine to pilgrims, hosting them for up to three days. The duties of lords to
distribute food and wine stemmed from Christian notions of hospitality
and also the old feudal obligations to vassals or dependents.
Paying hôtels or hôtelleries (hostels, hostelries) maintained by municipal
authorities sheltered travelers, prisoners of war, journeymen, judges,
and itinerant merchants. The hostels, inns, and much later the pensions
(boarding houses) typical in the nineteenth century served meals usually
at fixed hours and almost invariably at a communal table, where the local
regulars often gave travelers and newcomers a hard time. For important
occasions such as weddings, elites rented out a hôtel and the services of
a cook and his helpers, for a catered meal. Inns and the tavernes that
served wine set up strategically near city gates, at busy intersections in
town, and close to marketplaces that drew a crowd. According to region
and century, one also drank wine or beer at a cabaret (Picardy), estaminet
(northern France and the Burgundian territory that is today Belgium),
or a débit de vin (“wine dispensary:” sixteenth century and later). Usually
the taverns and other watering holes made some sort of food available,
minimally bread and cheese or a piece of cold meat pie.
MANUSCRIPT TO COOKBOOK
The earliest French-language works on cooking reflect practice in
distinguished settings. Recipes and indications for service followed the
international style of the late medieval and early Renaissance courts
throughout western Europe. The nobility were conspicuous consumers,
interested in ostentation as well as the distribution of largesse. Nobles
feasted in the great halls of their castles. Each course of a meal had several
dishes, and the table was set with a nef or ship-shaped container to hold
the salt. Honored guests sat above the salt close to the head of the table.
Food was placed on sliced bread trenchers, which might rest on metal
underplates. Myriad attendants performed separate offices. Carvers neatly
dismembered whole roasted animals carried in on immense platters;
pantners looked after the bread; sauciers attended to the garnishes. The
spectacular service prevented diners from having to bring knives and slice
their own portions from the roast, as in earlier times.
One of the earliest recipe manuscripts, Le Viandier (The Provisioner)
attributed to Guillaume de Tirel (1315–1395), drew on the author’s
experience as maistre queux du roy de France or master cook to the king
of France. Tirel was known as Taillevent. His nickname refers to wind
cutting through sails and presumably evokes his swiftness and efficacy in
the kitchen. Taillevent’s résumé was superb: he cooked for the Valois
king Philip VI and for Charles V and served as head of provisions for
Charles VI. His cookbook has a coherent organization that reflects the
relationship of the recipes to the part they play in a grand meal. Recipes
are organized according to the type of main ingredient, the use of the dish
for further cooking or service, and the cooking method: boiled meats,
meat broths and stews, roasts and roast fowl, fancy entremets (meat or grain
dishes served between the first and second courses), meatless stews and
soups (for fast days), food for the sick, fish (including whale, in one ver-
sion of the manuscript) and shellfish, and cold and hot sauces. This logic,
in which the cookbook mirrors the meal in its organization and progress
through time, is still current for many manuals. In 1450, Johann Guten-
berg pioneered use of the printing press with movable type in Mainz, and
printing came to France shortly thereafter (1470). The popular Viandier
enjoyed numerous print editions through the seventeenth century.
Another early manuscript, Le Mesnagier de Paris (The Parisian Household
Guide, ca. 1393), evokes a different, if also wealthy, milieu. The author
was a well-heeled bourgeois who wrote the instructional booklet for his
teenage bride, who had to learn to run the ménage (household), includ-
ing supervising the kitchen. Le Mesnagier is thoroughly didactic. Chapters
on the obligations of a virtuous wife, moral theology, and economics
accompany those on meals. The author describes how to dress game taken
on the hunt and indicates when the various garden vegetables should be
planted seasonally. He gives menus for feast and fast days, and even tells
his wife where she should go shopping for ingredients and utensils in Paris,
and how much money she should spend for each item. Many of his recipes
borrow directly from Taillevent’s Viandier, although there is some adjust-
ment in the direction of modesty. After all, the author wrote for his own
ménage, not for service in a château (castle).
Late medieval recipes hold surprises for the modern French palate.
Notably, sweet flavors combined with salty tastes in the same dish, as
cane sugar, imported from the Middle East and Sicily, was used as a spice.
Many recipes demand a heavy-handed application of spices. A typical
list includes cloves, grains of paradise (Malagueta pepper), long pepper,
cinnamon, ginger, and the irreplaceable black pepper. The spice mixtures
reflect the Roman heritage. They also indicate the circumstances of the
eaters. Expensive foreign spices were status symbols. To serve or consume
them was to demonstrate wealth and prestige. Other intriguing features
of medieval recipes include elaborate substitutions and gastronomic
trickery, as in the recipe for “imitating a bear [or stag] steak with a piece
of beef.”6
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STREET FOOD

Taking food and meals outside of the home had a strong association to the
urban centers, where walking down the street revealed a wealth of edibles.
Beginning in the twelfth century, specialists such as bakers, butchers,
shoemakers, smiths, and town criers joined with colleagues to form guilds
(communautés de métier, later called corporations). The collectivities regu-
lated entry into each trade and defended practitioners’ interests, giving
a taste of independence to master workers if not their apprentices. The
tantalizing list of food specialists for Paris in Étienne Boileau’s Livre des
métiers (Book of Trades) of 1268 mentions sellers of bread; of leftovers from
the grand houses; of geese, pigeons, and fowl; of meat or fish pasties and
cheese and egg pies; and of tripe and offal. Later in the same century, the
poet Guillaume de Villeneuve’s Crieries de Paris (Parisian Vendors’ Calls)
adds that pears, vinegared herring, onions à longue haleine (having a last-
ing effect on the breath), milk, and bowls of gruel were available. People
purchased these street foods at the exterior counter of a boutique, from
an ambulatory vendor with his cart, or from a merchant stationed at an
échoppe (booth or shop). Roasted meats came from a rôtisseur, cooked and
cured pork from a chaircuitier saulcissier. The gaufrier specialized in waffles; a
similar unleavened egg and butter cake called a fouace was the province of
the fouacier. The oublie (a waffle decorated with religious symbols) recalled
the oblation (sacrifice; by extension the symbolic offering of bread and
wine in the Catholic liturgy). Stationed at the entry to churches on feast
days, the oubloyer’s portable oven was sometimes called a fournaise à pardon
(“absolution furnace”). During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries cities
grew rapidly, and bureaucracy displaced tribal and familial relationships. In
urban settings, industry and trade prospered, and self-sufficiency declined.
Types of street food multiplied over the centuries as sellers increased in
number, but one had to purchase one’s repast piecemeal. In principle, each
vendor had to stick to his specialty, defined by corporate rules and royal
statutes revised periodically until the attempt was made to suppress the
trade guilds in 1776; they were definitively dissolved in 1791.
Risks accompanied eating out, including in the street. Concerned
municipal authorities did pass ordinances to regulate sales. Meat sellers,
for instance, had to responsibly discard or burn any meat older than two
or three days and meat that smelled off. But the customer had to be on
the alert. To stretch profits, tavern keepers were known to sophistiquer
(adulterate) their wine. An unscrupulous wine merchant might push
ignoble plonk as a good vintage from one of the better wine towns, raising
the price accordingly.
NEW WORLD FOODS

Cornerstones of modern cooking such as potatoes and tomatoes are
relatively recent additions to the French pantry. These New World
foods came to France as a result of European voyages made beginning
in the late fifteenth century. By this time, Portugal had cornered the
market on black pepper, and Spain wanted its own supply of this expen-
sive commodity. Commissioned by the Spanish monarchs, Christopher
Columbus first set out in 1492 to find a fast water route to “the Indies”
(that is, Asia) to make it cheaper to import pepper and other spices.
Neither Columbus, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, nor Hernando
Cortès, who reached Mexico in 1519, made it to the Far East. Bumping
instead into the Americas, they returned with marvelous foods: tomatoes,
bell peppers, turkey (in French dinde abbreviates coq d’Inde or “Indian
chicken”), and new varieties of beans. In 1537, Spanish soldiers found
“floury roots” in a mountain village in Peru7; potatoes arrived in Europe
in the 1570s. Muscovy duck, chocolate, vanilla, and pumpkin returned
with European voyagers, who also encountered pineapple, papaya, guava,
corn (maize), and strawberries.
Belated French voyages to the New World brought further culinary
discoveries, including the Jerusalem artichoke and wild rice. The French
state came late to ambitious maritime exploration. Rather, private funds
sponsored the earliest trading and colonizing voyages, as well as the famous
corsaires or pirates who raided Spanish and Portuguese ships. Samuel de
Champlain finally founded a successful colony at Québec in 1608, and Henri
IV began sending Jesuit missionaries to North America shortly thereafter.
From Canada, Champlain returned with the topinambour or Jerusalem
artichoke (or sunchoke), which is appreciated today. The knobby tuber
has a firm texture and a sweet taste reminiscent of artichokes. As with
many new foods, there was initially some confusion as to how to name it.
Nicolas de Bonnefons was the valet to Louis XIV whose books Le Jardinier
françois (The French Gardener, 1651) and Les Delices de la campagne (The
Delights of the Countryside, 1654) laid out instructions for gardening and
then cooking from one’s own harvest. Bonnefons called the Jerusalem
artichoke a pomme de terre (“earth apple”; this would become the word
for potato). Another writer referred to it as a poire de terre (“earth pear”).
Topinamboux is the French name of a native Brazilian tribe (the Tupi).
Perhaps the name topinambour stuck for the Jerusalem artichoke because it
so intriguingly evokes exotic origins. The voyagers to North America also
found Virginia strawberries (larger than the tiny, seedy Old World fraises
des bois or wild woodland strawberries), blueberries, cranberries, and the
aquatic grass known as wild rice, which the Ojibwa taught the French to
harvest from canoes and to cure.
Many of the New World foods were incorporated only gradually into the
diet. Hot chili peppers in the Capsicum family never took hold at all; spicy
flavors are still disliked today. Other foods came through Spain and went to
Italy before ending up in France, where cultural obstacles prevented their
quick adoption. Today, it is difficult to imagine cooking without tomatoes;
however, it took two centuries before the tomato was incorporated into
the diet. A member of the deadly nightshade family, it was thought poi-
sonous. The potato, from the same family of Solonacae, was also viewed
with suspicion. Of course, the voyagers attested to its edibility. A few others
quickly recognized that the potato would be useful against grain shortages,
and fields were planted in Alsace and Lorraine, in the Auvergne, and in
the Lyon area. Because of the importance of bread and the periodic famines
resulting from lack of grain, potato fanciers experimented with using po-
tato flour or mashed potatoes to replace wheat in leavened loaves; however,
the potato had a bad reputation. It was accused of causing leprosy and was
thought of as food fit only for the poor. By the eighteenth century, the old
excuse was taken up that spuds were flatulent. Finally, potatoes were dis-
tributed to members of an agricultural society, and the naturalist Auguste
Parmentier (1737–1813), with the support of Marie-Antoinette and Louis
XVI, promoted them tirelessly. Parmentier’s great coup was to plant pota-
toes in a field belonging to Louis XVI that was heavily guarded during the
day. When the guards retired for the evening, temptation lured the local
population in to poach whatever was so very valuable in the king’s fields. By
the nineteenth century, people had begun to rely on potatoes as a staple.
Turkey was accepted relatively quickly. By the eighteenth century, it
often replaced goose as a festive roast. Today, turkey is popular for the
winter holidays, and, as a pale-fleshed meat, it often replaces veal. In the
seventeenth century, southern French peasants began to grow corn to eat
as millasse (porridge like Italian polenta) or as corncakes or pancakes, selling
the more profitable wheat that they grew. Elsewhere corn was primarily
grown as animal fodder and to enrich soil depleted from other crops. It is
hardly eaten today; most people still think of corn as food for animals.
CLASSICAL COOKING
Late seventeenth-century cookbooks emphasized tastes and codified pro-
cedures that persist today. In the 1660s, the satirist Nicolas Boileau poked
fun at vulgar types who scour far-off Goa for pepper and ginger and whose
idea of refinement consists of too much pepper mixed up in the sauce.8
Spices, which had become relatively inexpensive, were out of style in aristo-
cratic contexts. Instead of disguising flavors of the principal ingredients with
baroque flourishes, some clarity and sense of proportion were now sought.
Even humble vegetables were required to taste a bit more of themselves.
Cooks working for elite diners turned to the kitchen garden for the flavoring
palette. Cookbooks from this period, such as François Pierre de La Varenne’s
Le Cuisinier françois (The French Cook, 1651), Pierre de Lune’s Le Cuisinier
(The Cook, 1656), and L.S.R.’s Art de bien traiter (Art of Entertaining Well,
1674), show that cooks did use spices such as cloves. They certainly retained
salt and pepper, although, often enough, only un peu (a little bit) in the case
of pepper. A remarkable feature of these cookbooks is the use of plants to
provide seasoning. Fresh herbs, onions, and garlic appear repeatedly in the
recipes. Pierre de Lune explained how to use an herbal paquet (packet) that
could be dropped into cooking liquids to give them flavor. The little bundle
included thyme, chervil, and parsley and was tied up with a piece of string;
the optional strip of lard (fat bacon) was taken out for jours maigres (lean
days). Pierre de Lune’s paquet is the ancestor of the modern bouquet garni.
Increasingly, salty flavors were separated from sweet, and sweets relegated to
the end of the meal. A harmonious balance of flavors and the enhancement,
rather than disguise, of the main ingredients were desired.
Fresh parsley, scallions, shallots, and garlic are essential ingredients and flavorings
in French cuisine. Courtesy of Hervé Depoil.
The late seventeenth-century cookbooks reflect the preference for

order. The Classical-era manuals allude to the sequences of procedures
that are necessary for complex cooking. The cook must keep on hand
an all-purpose meat stock pour la nourriture (“for the alimentation”) of
other dishes such as sauces and to moisten meats. He must make roux
(flour cooked in butter) as a thickener, and he must use butter and fewer
breadcrumbs as liaisons or binders. To complete the time-consuming
preparations—mashing, grating, peeling, chopping, slicing, scaling, soak-
ing, blanching, boiling, reducing, barding, mixing, kneading, whipping,
stirring, sieving, clarifying—on the large scale required to cook grand
meals, an army of kitchen help must assist the head chef. These prepara-
tions had to be carried out before a dish could be finished. Today, chefs
spend hours in the kitchen completing their mise en place (“putting into
place” or preparation, i.e., chopping parsley, peeling vegetables, and so
on) before actually beginning to cook. The Classical cookbooks laid the
foundation for the lush cooking that went on in wealthy houses during
the eighteenth century. The recipes and procedures also underpin haute
cuisine, the refined, complex style of cooking that chefs practiced in res-
taurants and hotels in the nineteenth century. The contemporary descen-
dent of aristocratic banquet cuisine is today’s cuisine gastronomique, such
as in the Michelin-starred restaurants.
Despite the advances toward modern taste in Classical cooking, aris-
tocratic banquet meals retained the ostentatious service à la française
(French-style service) typical of the Renaissance. Each course consisted of
a profusion of different dishes laid out in a perfectly symmetrical geometry
on the table. One was obliged to take from whatever serving plate was
near at hand.
The ceremonial court meal served à la française reached its apogee in
the dining rooms of Louis XIV (r. 1661–1715). The Sun King’s reign
had begun with an unfortunate slight delivered by means of dinner.
With money skimmed off from the state’s tax income, Nicolas Fouquet,
the superintendent of finances, built himself an estate and gardens at
Vaux-le-Vicomte, then began to entertain in a style that fit his grand
circumstances. In the summer of 1661, he staged two full days of festivities,
including a parade of costumed allegorical figures who served supper and
a massive edible monument of sugar confectionary, shiny preserved fruits,
and ices, to honor Louis XIV. The mastermind behind the ill-fated but
gorgeous banquet at Vaux was the maître d’hôtel or executive chef Franç ois
Vatel. The king grew disgusted at Fouquet’s opulence, arranged for his
minister’s arrest, and was never again outdone in the area of magnificent
entertaining.
Under the reign of Louis XIV, France subdued Spanish and Austrian
rivals in Europe and set the standard for cultural brilliance across the
Continent. Louis XIV ordered gardens and a brilliant hall of mirrors to
be built at his château at Versailles. There he surrounded himself with
his aristocratic entourage. The scheme was astute. The king made sure
that people danced attendance upon him even when he arose from bed
in the morning. For a noble, to risk an absence from a feast or the king’s
intimate but ceremonial morning lever was to incur his displeasure and
risk banishment to the yawning provinces. By holding political rivals in
pleasing captivity at Versailles, Louis XIV prevented interference with his
own monopoly on power.
Protocol for serving and eating, like nearly every other aspect of court
life, was designed to reflect and increase the greatness of the monarch. The
king was the only man allowed to eat bareheaded. His food was marched
in from the far-away kitchens by a long procession of guards, servants, and
tasters. Although the use of the fork was firmly established by now among
members of the aristocratic classes, Louis XIV was the only person at the
table who did not bother with one, preferring to eat with his hands.
Unsuccessful attempts had been made to recruit Vatel into service at
Versailles; however, Vatel did stage one more dinner for the king. In
1669, now working for the Prince de Condé—long a rival to the king
and suspected of a conspiracy against him—at the Château de Chantilly,
Vatel staged an entertainment and weekend of feasting designed to
restore his master to the good graces of the king. So great was the pressure
of the occasion that the ingenious Vatel panicked when the delivery of
fish failed to arrive, and he committed suicide. The epistolary chronicler
Madame de Sévigné was not even there, but she habitually gathered all
the gossip, and her account of Vatel’s death is practically the only credible
information that survives. Madame de Sévigné wrote to her daughter that
the fish wagons finally arrived, and the meal was a great success, at least
for the Prince.
Clearly, food and table manners were weighty matters during the Clas-
sical era. The table was a stage on which dramas of power were enacted
every day. This is quite clear in the sly comedies of the playwright Molière,
responsible for many of the evening entertainments at Versailles, just as he
had been for the play presented by Fouquet at Vaux in 1661. In Tartuffe,
ou l’Imposteur (Tartuffe, or The Imposter, 1669), for instance, the dynamics
of the meal reveal the moral and psychological conflicts. A wealthy,
gullible bourgeois has taken a devout individual into his household, but
the soulful friend turns out to be a destructive parasite and first-rate hypo-
crite. Tartuffe literally eats his host out of house and home, attempts to
seduce his virtuous wife, and nearly swindles him of everything he owns.
As gluttonous Tartuffe grows fat on bread and wine that are not his own,
the mistress of the house grows sick and faint and cannot eat. The shared
meal turns into a perverse, vampiric anti-communion, showing the social
order gone wrong.
Cookbooks and other documents pertaining to meals reveal the strong
sense of social hierarchy that prevailed at the height of the ancien régime.
Visible conformity to rank and acceptable social mores, such as Tartuffe’s
show of devout Catholicism (shared with Louis XIV), was the order of
the day. The anthology called L’École parfaite des officiers de bouche (The
Finishing School for Cooks, 1662) borrowed not only recipes from cook-
books but also information from the tradition of treatises dating to the
Renaissance on topics such as carving and serving. The anonymous com-
piler of the École parfaite included diagrams that show the steps for cutting
up roast meats and whole cooked fish and fowl in order to serve them. The
introduction and the written instructions that accompany the pictures
remind the carver that he should serve the best morsels, appropriately
sauced and garnished, to those with the highest social standing. The lesser
pieces were doled out to the less distinguished guests.
Published at the very end of the seventeenth century, the title of
Massialot’s Cuisinier roïal et bourgeois (Royal and Bourgeois Cook, 1691)
responded to the incipient social changes that brought cookbooks aimed
for use in nonaristocratic households. During the eighteenth century,
Menon’s anonymously published Cuisinière bourgeoise (The [Female]
Bourgeois Cook, 1746) even acknowledged, by its title, that the person
cooking in any but the very wealthiest households was usually a woman.
Menon’s cookbook was a best-seller and the only ancien régime cookbook
to be reissued immediately after the Revolution of 1789. Regional cook-
books appeared in the nineteenth century and encyclopedic yet accessible
references both to grand cooking and to home cooking in the twentieth.
Today, the many illustrated cookbooks that are designed to appeal to the
broad swathe of the middle classes combine the visual appeal of the art or
photography book and the personal tone of the memoir with the practical
methods in the recipes themselves.
COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, TEA, AND SUGAR

During the seventeenth century, chocolate, coffee, tea, and sugar
became fashionable among elites; a century later, they would be com-
monplace. Mexican chocolate (drunk as a beverage) was adopted at the
Spanish court and then in the Spanish Netherlands before coming to
France, where the aristocracy considered the drink an aphrodisiac. Coffee

made its way from Ethiopia and Yemen, through the Arab world to Turkey,
then via the Mediterranean port cities to southern Europe, and by boat
from Venice to the trading center of Marseille. Separately, in 1669, an
Ottoman ambassador on diplomatic mission from Constantinople also
introduced coffee to the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Perception of
coffee’s effects varied, but generally it was seen as a sobering, intellectually
stimulating drink. The Dutch East India Company brought Chinese tea
to Europe, but the supply to France increased substantially after Henri IV
chartered the French East India Company in 1604. As all three beverages
were thought to be overly strong and bitter, Europeans added cane sugar
to sweeten them.
In antiquity cane sugar had been a curiosity known to come from India.
During the Middle Ages, cane cultivation spread with Arabian settlements
to areas of the Mediterranean and North Africa, and crusaders supervised
sugar plantations in Jerusalem. Sugar was so expensive that only small
quantities returned to Europe. From the thirteenth century, sculptures
made of spun sugar and marzipan (ground almonds mixed with sugar),
decorated royal tables as symbols of wealth and power. Columbus brought
cane to Santo Domingo, and from there it spread to other Caribbean
islands and the South American mainland. In this era the sugar industry
depended on the slave trade for labor. Portuguese and Spanish colonial
plantations staffed by slaves in the Atlantic, then British and French ones
in the Caribbean, sent quantities of sugar to Europe. In eighteenth-century
France, in view of the competition from other colonial nations, to drink
coffee imported from the Antilles and to eat sweets made with Martinique
or Guadeloupe sugar was to support the economy. Throughout the nine-
teenth century, sugar was rare to unknown in peasant households. The
taste for sugared coffee and the other beverages was initially restricted to
aristocratic and bourgeois circles.
In the nineteenth century, France became a major producer of sugar,
and by the twentieth century the hot drinks, especially coffee, had
entirely replaced beer, wine, and soups as morning meals. When Napoleon
boycotted trade with Britain in the early nineteenth century, Britain
blocked French ships from landing in the western ports. France’s colonial
sugar could not reach the country. As early as the late sixteenth century,
the botanist Olivier de Serres had remarked on the high sugar content of
beets. Napoleon now called for the cultivation of sugar beets in northern
France and the Belgian provinces. The banker, industrialist, and amateur
botanist Benjamin Delessert developed a dependable refining process, for
which Napoleon named him chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. France soon
had a reliable local source of sugar. During the 1860s, consumption aver-
aged 5.3 kilograms (about 11.7 pounds) of sugar yearly. This works out
to about one teaspoonful each day. As late as the 1890s, working class
prejudice mitigated against sugar. In contrast with the nourishing, savory
staples of meat and bread, sugar was viewed as unhealthy9; however, sugar
manufacturers began to advertise heavily, and this attitude changed. No
longer a medical wonder, rare spice, or wondrous decoration for luxurious
tables, sugar became the common sweetener and preservative that it is
today. At present, the average person consumes nearly 33.5 kilograms (74
pounds) of sugar each year.
ENLIGHTENMENT CAFÉS
In the eighteenth century, cafés became common in Paris and modern-style
restaurants developed. In this era new customs blurred old divisions among
the social orders. Nobles engaged in trades such as mining to exploit their
land, yet retained hereditary privileges. The monarch sold administrative
offices to raise money, allowing bourgeois citizens to purchase power along
with noble titles. The rags-to-riches story in Pierre Carlet de Marivaux’s
novel Le Paysan parvenu (The Parvenu Peasant, 1735) marked rungs on the
social ladder through culinary and gastronomic distinctions. At the novel’s
start, the protagonist is fed by the cook in the back kitchen of the house
where he is a servant. By its end, he has married his way into a family of
fermiers généraux (tax farmers), the bourgeois fiscal administrators and money
lenders whose opulent eating habits rivaled those of the previous century’s
aristocrats, and he presides over his own richly appointed table. Four-fifths of
the population still lived in villages and rural areas, but the sway of the mer-
chant and bourgeois classes, including bankers, grew in the urban centers.
France’s first successful café had been opened in the 1670s by the young
Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, known as Franç ois Procope; the café still
operates in Paris. Following Italian practice, Procope eschewed the eastern
custom of leaving the grounds in the cup, and instead served filtered coffee,
along with ices, liqueurs, and candied fruits. Many cafés served a selection of
foods as well as coffee. They notably provided an ambiance quite different
from the boozy miasma of the tavern. Over the stimulating small bowls or
cups of coffee, people from all walks of life sat down to read the newspaper,
play chess, discuss politics, and debate the latest play. Because cafés were
open to all comers, coffee-drinking acquired its lasting association with con-
versation and the free exchange of information. Since then, many a café has
served at once as office, salon, dining room, and daily or nightly haven for
writers scribbling away under the gaze of the garçon de café (café waiter).
Little escapes the watchful eye of the

café waiter. Courtesy of Hervé Depoil.
PHILOSOPHICAL FOOD
The democratic attitude that flourished in the café guided the
Enlightenment approach to food in other spheres. The topic is treated
with interest in the great Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences,
des Arts, et des Métiers (Encyclopedia, or Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences,
Arts, and Trades, 1751–1765) that the philosophe Denis Diderot, the
mathematician Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, and others wrote collab-
oratively at mid-century. The editors believed that analysis and reason
should be applied in all domains. Accordingly, they solicited articles not
just on the expected topics of theology, history, and jurisprudence, but
also on pastry-making, bread-baking, butchering, and strawberries. Mate-
rialist thought even rationalized pleasure by means of the table. Although
of delicate digestion, Diderot notoriously loved to eat and drink, and he
took pleasure into account. The word gourmandise or gluttony had referred
since the fourteenth century to the Deadly Sin. In his article on the topic
for the Encyclopédie, Diderot gave the word a new, secular definition and
introduced the notion of moderation. Now gourmandise also meant the
deepened enjoyment that comes with understanding. Cultivated into an
intellectual as well as a sensual experience, the bodily necessity of eating

could enhance, rather than simply maintain, everyday existence. Today,
informed appreciation for the daily pleasures of cooking and eating is a
defining aspect of the French approach to food.
Social critics associated with the later Enlightenment couched their
discussions in a more polemical way. Writing during the 1780s, the
reformer and journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier recorded in the Tableau
de Paris (Picture of Paris) the misery that ecclesiastical fasting require-
ments inflicted on the poor. On lean days, all observant Catholics were
still supposed to avoid prohibited foods or foods of unclear status, such
as eggs, a staple for many who did not have the means to pay for meat.
Mercier observed with chagrin that any prohibition unjustly strained the
poor, whose real problem was getting enough to eat at all. Bread riots that
continued through the most of the century bore out this view.
Ever the contrarian, the philosophe and novelist Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
saw both urbane gastronomic pleasure and urban food shortage as two sides
of the same decadent coin. In his novel Émile (1762), about educating
children, he recommended pure, simple food as the most wholesome and
also as the best for character formation. Rousseau was actually a franco-
phone Swiss. He complained that, contrary to the received idea that the
sophisticated French eat well, they are in fact the only people “who do
not know how to eat, because so specialized an art is required to make
dishes edible for them.” Given the choice, he observed, children incline
to vegetables along with “dairy products, pastries, [and] fruits,” and they
eschew meat, which makes people “cruel and ferocious.”10 Foods should
be prepared with as few alterations to their original state as possible. One
should not, for instance, apply heat to butter and dairy products. One
should eat foods in season. In defiance of contemporary norms for those
with any disposable income, Rousseau advocated that mothers, rather than
hired wet-nurses, breast-feed their new babies. His ideas for a natural diet
reached a wide audience. Parents sought guidance in Émile to raising their
own children, and Rousseau’s novel Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (Julie, or
The New Heloise, 1761), which portrayed an ideal family and household
economy, was a bestseller.11
MODERN RESTAURANTS
The modern restaurant experience took shape in Paris in the late
eighteenth century. Beginning in the 1760s, a few guilded traiteurs or
cook-caterers expanded business by offering meals in a different kind of
setting than the rough table d’hôte of the innkeeper. The word restaurant
designated a “restorative” soup or bouillon made from meat or fowl that

was reduced to a rich essence. In new maisons de santé (“health houses”) or
salles du restaurateur (“restaurateur’s rooms”) the caterers aimed to appeal
to clients by providing the health-giving decoctions on a flexible schedule.
In addition to broths, they served items such as boiled capons, soft-boiled
eggs, fruit preserves, and rice puddings. The light, salubrious prepara-
tions could also, conveniently, be kept or quickly prepared for service at a
moment’s notice. The new establishments listed the available dishes and
their prices on a carte or menu; the customer chose exactly what and when
he or she wanted to eat. Although they frequented a public place, diners
sat at private, individual tables. Before long, the term restaurant meant
the eating house itself. They caught on quickly, although the first trip to
a restaurant could be fraught with peril. It was necessary to decipher the
menu and sometimes to outsmart a sneaky maître d’hôtel who could run up
the bill by bringing extras.12 The famous early establishments were based
in Paris. These included the Trois Frères Provençaux (Three Brothers from
Provence), who served southern specialties such as brandade de morue
(creamed salt cod) and bouillabaisse (Provençal fish soup); the Grande
Taverne de Londres (Great London Tavern), opened in 1782 by Antoine
Beauvilliers, who had cooked for the Count of Provence, the future Louis
XVIII; Véfour, which is still open today; and Véry. After the revolution-
ary decade (1790s), some private cooks who had been employed in great
houses had to start over, either within the country or elsewhere. Many
opened restaurants, exporting abroad for commercial purposes not just la
cuisine française (French cooking) but, notably, an entire French dining
experience.
COMFORT, QUALITY, AND ENJOYMENT

The largely unsung hero of the modern working class and middle class
table was the eclectic aristocrat turned food critic Alexandre Balthazar
Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1758–1837). After the Revolution and
the chaos of the Terror in the early 1790s, legal reforms enacted under
Napoleon shaped a country changed by republican ideas although still
breathing ancien régime air. The new Code Napoléon or Civil Law Code
of 1804 scripted autonomy and equality (at least, for men) before the
law. It fostered meritocracy rather than entitlement based on inherited
name or rank. “Quality” now came from work or performance, rather
than bloodlines. Grimod, who had trained as a lawyer, had a serious
interest in food and deep skepticism regarding the motives of the powerful.
His satirical response was to develop a mocking code gourmand or food
connoisseur’s canon of laws for the table.13 During the Napoleonic Empire
(1804–1815), he invented (in 1804) a clever system for judging quality
and “legitimating” all that was best to eat. This meant that he persuaded
caterers and restaurateurs to give him samples of their wares. Food pro-
ducers did so, in part for the advertising, and in part for fear of reprisal
from this fearsome new species of ally-adversary, the food critic. Grimod’s
guides fueled the nascent gastronomic industry made up of restaurants,
boutiques, eaters, and writers; all belonged to a consumer culture that was
expanding in many domains. Good taste and knowledge now emerged
from interactions among producers and consumers, or chefs and eaters,
and writers and readers. What is remarkable is that fashion in food no
longer emanated from exclusive removes associated with the centralized
power (the court, through nearly the end of the preceding century), but
rather from establishments open to the public (or at least, the wealthier
segments) and from the response of that public.
Grimod’s system had its coercive aspects; the same is true for the
complex relationships that exist today among food producers, critics, and
consumers. At the same time, Grimod had a strong sense of duty as a
public advocate. During the national conversion to the metric system and
uniform system of weights and measures, Grimod vociferously criticized
unscrupulous shopkeepers and traders who took advantage of the situa-
tion to overcharge customers or short-weight meats or produce. Like many
others of his time, he soon tired of Napoleon’s all-conquering military
sweep across Europe and worried over the hostilities with Britain. The
latter interfered with the flow of goods so necessary to support fine dining.
To protest the former, he championed (from his desk chair and dining
table—Parisian central command for gastronomic operations) specialties
of, for instance, the German states, such as the fine mineral waters, meat
stews, and steamed dumplings.
Despite his own distinguished, exceedingly wealthy origins, Grimod had
a modern taste for comfort and enjoyment. He disdained the old aristo-
cratic preference for ostentation. He recommended that meals be simpli-
fied. He was an early advocate of serving in the style then called à la russe
(Russian style). Instead of the old service à la française, Grimod preferred
that each service or course of a meal consist of a single dish. Each prepa-
ration should come to the table completely prepared and perfectly done.
This allowed the eater to fully appreciate each food at the peak of its per-
fection and to enjoy it hot, while resting assured that he had a similar por-
tion to his neighbor. The service of a full meal in separate courses became
standard in the most elegant and expensive contexts by the 1860s. Sim-
plicity made the method adaptable for modest households, too. Today, the
Enjoyment is the best praise for good cooking. Courtesy of Christian Verdet/
regard public-unpact.
ceremonial yet simple structure is typical for any full meal, whether served
at home or in a restaurant.
If Grimod mobilized a comprehensive revolution at the table, the more
famous writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826) spread the
word with the deliciously amusing Physiologie du goût (Physiology of Taste,
1826). Brillat was a magistrate who fled France during the Terror, ending
up in New England, where he taught French and music and famously shot
a wild turkey in the “virgin forests” of Connecticut before making his
way back home. Food appreciation, in Brillat’s view, is fundamental to
the understanding of nearly everything, and nearly everything makes its
way into his book. Notes on the physical faculties of taste and digestion,
a history of science culminating with “the science of gastronomy” trium-
phant, observations not only on feasting and fasting but also on thirst,
a discussion of the “Influence of Gourmandise on Marital Bliss,” recom-
mendations for fattening and slimming diets, gossipy anecdotes, jokes for
enlivening a dinner party—all have their place in the Physiologie. Brillat’s
cheerful, sociable banter demystified dining rituals formerly associated
with grand tables and endeared the author to generations of readers.
The chef Antonin or Marie-Antoine Carême (1783–1833), like
Grimod and Brillat, participated both in the ancien and in the nouveau
régimes—political, social, and dietary. He was a private chef in the old

style who served some of the most prominent individuals in Europe,
including Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (wily politician,
rakish bishop, and notable gastronome who served under several admin-
istrations: the republican Directory of the late 1790s, the Napoleonic
Empire, the Bourbon monarchy restored in 1815) and Baron James de
Rothschild. Carême was also a self-made man and phenomenal self-
promoter who achieved fame and professional success in a thoroughly
modern fashion. He authored several volumes on pastry-making and
cooking, including the great oeuvre heavily entitled Art de la cuisine
française au 19e siècle: Traité élémentaire et pratique suivi de dissertations
culinaires et gastronomiques utiles au progrès de cet art (Art of French Cuisine
in the Nineteenth Century: Basic and Practical Treatise Followed by Culinary
and Gastronomic Dissertations Useful to the Progress of this Art, 1833). The
five-volume cookbook (the last two volumes were finished by his execu-
tors after his death) modernizes aristocratic grande cuisine for the grand
bourgeois table. His cooking was famous for its variety, sense of propor-
tion, and delicacy of flavor. Carême had nothing good to say about the
use of spices, but he felt strongly that magnificence and elaborate deco-
ration had their place on the table, and he preferred a modified version
of service à la française. He was a great fan of the expensive truffle and
other such luxuries. As a cook for fancy clients, he clearly had a pro-
fessional interest in avoiding the truly modern simplicity advocated by
Grimod. The employment of highly accomplished private cooks in many
wealthy and upper middle class houses continued until well after the
mid-twentieth century. The socialist politics of the 1980s finally made
the situation somewhat embarrassing for at least some employers. By that
time, few people capable of cooking on a high level cared to work as
private servants, preferring jobs that better integrated them into the pro-
fessional community of cooks.
NINETEENTH-CENTURY RESTAURANTS
Restaurant culture expanded rapidly during the nineteenth century.
The accounts of travelers and memoirists, treatment by novelists, con-
temporary studies of eating out, and documents such as balance sheets
and menus give a sense of why this was so. The nineteenth-century
population was predominantly rural and agricultural. All the same,
industrialization favored urbanization, and a steady stream of people left
the country for the northern and eastern coal-mining cities and places
such as Lille, Mulhouse, and Rouen, which had mechanized factories
beginning in the 1830s. Restaurants, at this juncture, like the taverns

and cafés that preceded them, opened primarily in cities and were a
mainstay of workers.
Quality of the food, ambience, and price varied, as they do today. The
multiplication of fancy restaurants during the First Empire had fostered a
connoisseur culture peopled by the new food critics and gastronomes, as
well as ostentatious consumption by high rollers of various stripes. This
grande cuisine or haute cuisine culminated late in the century in the cook-
ing and cookbooks of chef Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935) and in dining
rooms within the new “palaces” or grand hotels. But an equally or per-
haps even more remarkable phenomenon was the spread of decent but
inexpensive restaurants that served a modest prix fixe (fixed price) menu
aimed at a middle class clientele. Such menus listed prices for full meals
in three or four courses, not for individual items, giving one a package
deal. Workers favored inexpensive bouillon shops, where they chose from
a limited range of à la carte (individually listed) items served in small
portions; the series of beef and bouillon restaurants opened in the 1860s
by the butcher Duval are an early example of a chain restaurant. Dairy
restaurants were also popular among the working classes. Cheap gargotes
catered to the impecunious, such as students and laborers. Guinguettes
(outdoor cafés and dance-halls) opened seasonally outside city limits to
avoid the municipal taxes. The café-concerts had music as well as coffee,
alcohol, and food. Restaurants de nuit had dancing and usually a dubious
reputation. Menus in these diverse restaurants had in common that they
varied by season and offered three and sometimes four courses to compose
a full meal.
Two massive studies based on interviews of workers begun in the
mid-nineteenth century, Pierre-Guillaume-Frédéric Le Play’s Ouvriers
Européens (European Workers, 1855) and the collective work completed
by his followers entitled the Ouvriers des Deux Mondes (Workers from Two
Worlds, 1859–1930), show that motivations for frequenting restaurants
were diverse. These ranged from periodic indulgence or overindulgence in
food and wine, usually right after payday, to making oneself available for
encounters that would drum up business and increase one’s income. Some-
times one simply purchased at a restaurant what was needed to supple-
ment the essentials of a meal brought from home.14 In many cases, small,
cramped city apartments without amenities for cooking made eating out a
matter of necessity. New lighting technologies—stable-burning oil lamps
(by the 1790s), gas lamps (1860s), and electricity (1880s)—strategically
adopted by businesses increased the appeal of restaurants and lengthened
opening hours.15 The legacy of the affordable public eating culture has
been quite influential. Today, motivations for eating out differ, but it is
typical that throughout the country one can eat a meal of decent quality
outside the home without breaking the bank.
OLD WAYS AND NEW

In the late nineteenth century, outside of the cities with their mechanized
factories and restaurant culture, the picture was quite different. Two-
thirds of the population lived in rural areas and villages. The lifestyle was
agricultural, and farming was essentially preindustrial; it is ironic that in
this era, Third Republic (1870–1940) politicians famously justified ambi-
tious colonial expansion as a mission civilisatrice or mission to civilize and
assist in the modernization of the occupied countries. At home, meals for
most people still reflected the aim of self-sufficiency. With the exception
of a few items such as salt, sugar, and coffee that had to be purchased, what
was eaten came from the kitchen garden or the family farm. For farmers,
still called paysans (peasants or country people), main meals were built
around soups, which stretched ingredients as far as possible. Other staples
were the garden vegetables that stored well: potatoes, carrots, cabbages,
and beans. If animals were kept, butter and eggs could be sold. If a pig was
killed, it was pickled or smoked, to last the whole 12-month cycle.16 Bread
came from the village baker, or might still be baked at home.
For those who lived and—for the moment, stayed—in the country, it
was not so much the texture or material aspect of life but rather attitudes
that underwent a certain revision. The early years of the Third Republic
were characterized by a mix of nationalism and protectionism, on the one
hand, and democratic ideals and liberal economic policies, on the other.
The relationship among village bread baker, priest, and schoolmaster in
the classic film La Femme du boulanger (The Baker’s Wife, 1939) poignantly
depicts the difficult changing of the conceptual guard.17 The 1880s had
brought free, compulsory primary school education for all children and
the abolishment of religious education in public schools. The schoolmas-
ter was charged to represent the Republic and universally to inculcate its
values in his pupils. He supplanted the priest as an exemplary figure in vil-
lages. At the same time, at least in some rural areas, the routines of every-
day life had hardly changed. In the film, when the village baker is deserted
by his wayward wife, he becomes so distraught that he cannot make bread,
and the village begins to worry about its stomach. Priest and schoolmaster,
who conversed by peevish argument, now join forces to—of all things—
ford a stream to reach the baker’s wife and coax her into returning home.
The priest is hampered by the voluminous skirts of his cassock and suffers
being carried on the shoulders of the teacher, who wears a modern (and
masculine) suit. The waters part neither for the priest nor for the teacher.
The teacher seems better equipped to meet the challenges of modern life,
but the priest has a practiced bedside manner. Both are instrumental in
reestablishing harmony and unity in their community. Communion in
the village is now secular. It takes place at the baker’s and in each family’s
dining room, as much as in the church, with the baker’s bread rather
than the host distributed by the priest, and over the sociable glass of pastis
(anise liqueur typical in the South) taken at the one village café rather
than with the sip of consecrated wine. The film presents a nostalgic, ideal-
ized vision of village life, yet it is also accurate in some of the essentials. It
is notable that rituals of communion—or community—persist so strongly.
Participation in the collectivity of the village and shared cultural memory
exert a strong force.
INDUSTRIALIZATION AND AUTHENTICITY

Industrialization brought the looming threat that the individual
character of foods and food production, associated with quality and safety,
could be obliterated by impersonal processes beyond the ken of consum-
ers or of most producers. Adulteration of wine, either to doctor the flavor
or to attempt to preserve it, had always been a problem, although some
practices were considered acceptable. Fraud and the definition of words
complicated the issue. For instance, “wine” made from raisins rather than
fresh grapes technically was made from grapes. In the late nineteenth
century, new chemical processes of synthesis forced people to imagine the
weird possibility that a liquid sold as wine might not be made from grapes
at all.18 Wine, bread, and meat were the essential sources of calories for
urban workers. A further strain was caused by increased demand for wine
in the cities at the same time that a devastating string of contagions deci-
mated vines in the countryside. Destructive mildews, grape phylloxera
(a kind of aphid) and other plagues caused wine production to plummet
in the 15 years from 1875 to 1889 to a mere quarter of earlier levels. A
hygenics movement concerned with the rise in alcoholism insisted that
it was the modern adulterated wines that were causing problems. The
ancestral beverage of the Gauls, on the other hand, was touted as nour-
ishing and healthy. The regulations and attitudes that emerged were part
of the reaction to the complex of issues presented by industrialization,
production in difficult times, and rising demand.
Laws passed in the late nineteenth century provided ever more pre-
cise descriptive definitions of wines and methods of wine production.
The Griffe Law of 1889 specified that “No one shall expedite, sell, or
cause to be sold under the name of wine any product other than that
deriving from the fermentation of fresh grapes.” This was le vin naturel
or “natural wine.” Vin factice, which meant “artificial” or “elaborated”
or “synthetic” wine, was not condemned, but it was now clearly to be
distinguished from “natural” wine. The idea was that information would
orient people to choose “natural” wine; fraud, it was assumed, would be
eliminated as a consequence. When this did not happen, more inter-
ventionist statutes were passed to prevent certain types of adulteration.
Notably, a new law passed in 1894 forbade mouillage or stretching wine
with water (from mouiller, to wet or moisten) and vinage or increasing
the alcohol content by adding must. Mouillage did not threaten the
health of anybody who drank the treated wine, but the motivation for
making it illegal was to promote transparency in business transactions.
The longstanding law of 1905 against fraud enlarged on this idea,
leading to debate among winemakers and finally to a new statute in
1907 that precisely detailed how words such as vin (wine) and méthode
champenoise (Champagne-making method) should be used to corre-
spond to specific processes of production. Later in the century, socialist
and protectionist politics continued in the same direction of regula-
tion, but for different reasons than the earlier laws inspired by liberal
motives. Strict regulation of fraud and a politics of quality served the
national economic interest; for the same reason, the concern for public
health became another primary motive for food regulation.
TERROIR AND CONTROLLED DENOMINATION OF ORIGIN

Late nineteenth-century regionalism and the retour à la terre (“return to
the soil” or peasantism) that flourished between the two World Wars con-
tributed to defining the singular nature of foods through terroir. To be sure,
neither regional specialty nor the term terroir was anything new. Gallo-
Romans knew that their best oysters came from Brittany and Normandy
and that there were no better hams than those from Bayonne. The royal
tables of the absolutist era groaned under the weight of what was best from
all over France. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Grimod
de la Reynière advocated gastronomic tourism, writing that one had to
travel to Riom (Auvergne) to eat the best frogs legs, properly prepared by
a knowledgeable local expert. In 1808, the lawyer and pharmacist Charles
Louis Cadet de Gassicourt published a carte gastronomique (gastronomic
map) keyed with small pictures to show the typical foods for each region
and town. Awareness of regional particularity increased throughout the
century and was key both for rallying nationalist sentiment and stimu-
lating the tourist industry. During the twentieth century, the effort to
decentralize culture from Paris into the provinces led to cooperation
between the state and the regions to develop local identities.
Like regional specialty, the term terroir is as old as the hills that it long
designated. Terroir is related to terre (earth, dirt) and territoire (territory,
area). Of Latin origin, the term has been used in French since the thir-
teenth century to mean a plot of land suitable for cultivation. In the
nineteenth century, as trains and other forms of transport made it easier
to travel and also to perceive regional variations, the term took on an
association with other characteristics perceived as local. A person’s way
of speaking, if redolent of the countryside, was called the accent of his
terroir.
Today, the term terroir is used to evoke the connection among place,
manufacturing process, and taste that defines good-quality, artisanal wines
and foods. For wine, components of terroir include the climate (tempera-
ture, rainfall) of the location where the grapes are grown, sunlight, topog-
raphy (slope, altitude), and soil (its physical characteristics, chemistry,
interaction with water). Terroir also includes historical and cultural prac-
tices of the people involved, or the human element. One speaks of a wine
or a food, such as lamb from the prés-salés (salt marshes) and garriguettes,
the elongated strawberries originally grown in scrublands, as having the
goût du (taste of) terroir. This meaning of the term terroir informs the
familiar French metonymy for wine. Whereas American wines are identi-
fied first by the name of the grape (merlot, pinot noir) from which they
are made, French wines are identified first by the place from which they
come: a Côtes-du-Rhône, a Chablis, a Bordeaux, or the specific vineyard
within a geographical region or even a town. Additional details, such
as the cépage (type of vine or grape: gamay, cabernet, and so on) and
the year or vintage, are named second. A food or wine with the taste of
terroir is understood in opposition to commercial or industrial fast food
and supermarket products seen as sterile and impersonal, of unclear prov-
enance and little savor.
The specificity that informs terroir also underpins the Appellation d’origine
contrôlée or AOC (Controlled Denomination of Origin). Regulations
for the AOC derive from classifications for Bordeaux wines instituted
in the mid-nineteenth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, inexpensive Spanish and Portuguese wines were cutting out
French wines from European markets. Bordeaux wines, at that point,
were not known as being unusually good or even very distinctive, as they
are today. As a way of competing, winegrowers from the Médoc region
applied themselves to strategically developing grands crus or distinguished

Bordeaux wines that stand up to long aging and command very high
prices. To improve quality, they carefully cultivated the oldest and best
vines. They paid special attention to aging the reds in oak barrels. Along
the way, these growers also consolidated the cultivated parcels on their
estates. This reinforced the connection between the place where grapes
where grown and the resulting wine. As a measure of protection for their
exceptional wines, proprietors evolved special classifications that were
applied beginning in 1855. The best label of premier cru (first growth)
and even the least distinguished label of cinquième cru (fifth growth)
vastly increased the market value of these wines. The prestigious labels
were not easy to obtain. In the first year, the premier cru designation
was awarded to wines from four estates. The fifth estate was not added
until 1973.19 The many winemakers whom the grades excluded naturally
wished to obtain some sort of distinguishing label for their own bottles.
The fraud laws became important for winemakers, as imitations of the
distinguished bottles came on the market. More capacious legislation
passed in 1935 established the Appellation d’origine contrôlée, which could
be applied to wines from locations other than in Bordeaux. In 1990, the
AOC was expanded to cover all manner of foods as well as wines. Today,
the AOC certifies the place of origin, the specific type, and the mode
of production of a variety of products, from the poulet de Bresse (Bresse
Village appellation red burgundy from the Côte de

Beaune district of the Côte d’Or. Courtesy of Philippe
Bornier.
chicken) and beurre d’Isigny-Sainte-Mère (Isigny-Sainte-Mère butter), to

various fruits, and including some of the vins de table (table wines).
Because the designation AOC indicates a historical pedigree and also
functions something like a patent for the final product, extensive research
and documentation are necessary to establish the application dossier for
a food. The certification of the AOC gives a concrete, practical form to
the appreciation for quality and particularity. It embodies the general
acknowledgment that food with the best flavor and the most appealing
textures may result from carefully, even painstakingly, overseen processes
of cultivation and manufacture. The AOC also functions as a protection-
ist measure that is a boon to sellers and producers and to tourism.
FRANCE AND EUROPE

Because of membership in the European Union, laws pertaining to food
must now be negotiated within that framework. In 1992, the European
Community Council passed regulations based on the French AOC that
extend to all the member states. Today the European Commission admin-
isters a set of indications based on geography and origin for food and wine
in all the member states. The passage of the European legislation coin-
cided, ironically, with the reduction of trade barriers within the member
Farmer selling artichokes, radishes, and lettuce at market shortly before the
conversion in 2002 from the French franc to the Euro as the unit of currency.
Courtesy of Philippe Bornier.
states of the European Union. This has led, on occasion, to conflicts of

interest. Compliance with European economic policy imposes common
standards on member nations. This includes a relatively liberal approach
toward free trade and privatization. Despite compliance in other areas,
France is notorious for refusing to abandon, or even much reduce, subsi-
dies in place since the early 1960s for its farmers. In the spring of 2005,
a popular vote defeated a referendum to approve the proposed draft of a
European Constitution, for fear of the consequences that greater liberal-
ism could have on cherished social protections and on the quality of life.
At the time, the negative vote was seen as a major setback for Europe. But
these stances hardly prevent ongoing engagement with European projects.
Rather, they simply make clear that, at present, the primary challenge is
to balance the particular concerns of France with the larger endeavors of
Europe.
NOTES
1. Salvian of Marseille, On the Governance of God (c. 440s), from The
Writings of Salvian, the Presbyter, translator Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan (New York:
Cima Publishing Company, 1947).
2. Anthimus, De observatione ciborum (On the Observance of Foods), transla-
tor and editor Mark Grant (Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 1996), 54.
3. Vita Sadalbergae abbatissae Laudunensis 20, editor Bruno Krusch, in
Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum merovingicarum 5 (Hanover:
Impensis bibliopolii Hahniani, 1910), 61. Cited in Sainted Women of the Dark
Ages, editors and translators Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg with E.
Gordon Whatley (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), 189–90 and Bonnie
Effros, Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 16.
4. Karolus Imperator Capitulare de Villis, LXX, “Volumus quod in horto omnes
herbas habeant…” (We want that all the plants be cultivated in the garden…),
in Capitulare de villis; cod. guelf. 254 Helmst. der August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel,
2 vols., editor Carlrichard Brühl (Stuttgart: Müller und Schindler, 1971).
5. Einhard the Frank, Life of Charlemagne (ca. 829–36), translator Lewis
Thorpe (London: Folio Society, 1970), 64–67.
6. Le Mesnagier de Paris (ca. 1393), editors Georgina E. Brereton and Janet
M. Ferrier, translator Karin Ueltschi (Paris: Librarie Générale Française, 1994),
636 and 674.
7. Juan de Castellanos, Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada (ca. 1538,
published Madrid: 1886). Cited in Redcliffe N. Salaman, The History and Social
Influence of the Potato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1949), 36.
8. Nicolas Boileau, Satires (1663–1701), in Oeuvres vol. 1 (Paris: Garnier-
Flammarion, 1969), III and VII.
9. Martin Breugel, “A Bourgeois Good? Sugar, Norms of Consumption and

the Labouring Classes in Nineteenth-Century France,” pp. 99–118 in Food, Drink
and Identity, editor Peter Scholliers (Oxford: Berg, 2001).
10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, ou de l’éducation (1762), Book 2 (Paris:
Garnier-Flammarion, 1966), 194.
11. Robert Darnton, “Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of
Romantic Sensitivity,” in The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French
Cultural History (1984; New York: Vintage Books, 1985).
12. Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 2000).
13. Grimod de la Reynière, Almanach des gourmands, Cinquième année (Paris:
Maradan, 1807), 233.
14. Anne Lhuissier, “Eating Out during the Workday: Consumption and
Working Habits among Urban Labourers in France in the Second Half of the
Nineteenth Century,” pp. 337–49 in Marc Jacobs and Peter Scholliers, eds.,
Eating Out in Europe (Oxford: Berg, 2003).
15. Adel P. den Hartog, “Technological Innovations and Eating Out as a
Mass Phenomenon in Europe,” pp. 263–80 in Jacobs and Scholliers.
16. Eugen Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s (New York: Norton,
1994), 37.
17. Dana Strand, “Film, Food, and ‘La Francité’: From le pain quotidien to
McDo,” in French Food: On the Table, on the Page, and in French Culture, editors
Lawrence R. Schehr and Allen S. Weiss (New York: Routledge, 2001), 203–20.
18. Alessandro Stanziani, “La construction de la qualité du vin, 1880–1914,”
in La qualité des produits en France (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), editor Alessandro
Stanziani (Paris: Belin, 2003), 123–50.
19. Robert C. Ulin, Vintages and Traditions (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution, 1996), 46–50.
2
Major Foods and Ingredients
An astounding variety of foods are eaten in France. This is due to the

diversity of agricultural production, to long-standing traditions of cultiva-
tion and of practices such as hunting, and, more recently, to the many
imports. Americans are of course quite familiar with items such as beef,
the common orchard fruits, and eponymous exports such as Champagne.
Even so, different butchering practices, for instance, as well as the typical
preparations give beef a special flavor in France. Horse is not treated as
food in the United States. The taste for, say, grated raw celery root salad
with a cream dressing—a favorite bistro lunch—may come as a a surprise.
To present the major foods and ingredients, this chapter broadly follows
the structure of the traditional meal in courses. Bread, wine, and meat
come first, followed by vegetables, then cheese. Dessert—fruits, baked
goods—and the digestif (after-dinner drink) appear at the end.
BREAD
For centuries, bread was a staple of the diet, as well as a powerful reli-
gious symbol. The language has numerous expressions that refer to bread.
A slang word for a job is gagne-pain, because it is how you earn (gagner) the
bread that keeps you alive. To “take the bread out of someone’s mouth”
is to rob him of his livelihood. Your pain quotidien (daily bread) is the
food that you count on eating every day. Only a century ago, each person
ate 500 grams (on the order of a half-pound) daily. Today, about three
Buying a baguette at the boulangerie Au

pain chô in Sainte Maxime. The dough
rising on the racks at the back of the shop
awaits baking. Courtesy of Hervé Depoil.
or four slices of bread is average. Bread—no matter how small the quan-
tity—makes a meal complete. In cafés, bistros, and restaurants, slices of
bread are placed on the table in a basket to accompany food, as a matter
of course.
Breads are identified by name and, for country-style loaves, by weight.
Bread is rarely made at home, rather in boulangeries (bakery shops) or
industrial bakeries. The long (70 cm or 27.5 inches), thin, crusty white
baguette is typical of Paris, although it is eaten all over the country. At
best, the crust is crispy, and the crumb chewy and delicate. In a bakery
the baguette can be purchased bien cuite (well cooked), that is, darker and
dryer, or pas trop cuite (baked less), that is, taken out of the oven when
it is still pale gold, delicately crispy, and moister on the inside. A slim
relative of the baguette is the ficelle (string), similarly long but half the
diameter. Large round boules used to be a staple, and darker bread made
from unrefined wheat or rye was typical for the poor. Recent interest in
eating whole grains for health has brought dark breads back into fashion.
The bâtard (bastard) is a free-form loaf named for the mixed leavening
agents—both yeast and a sour-dough starter—used to make it. Rustic
Major Foods and Ingredients 43
pains de campagne (country breads) can be enriched with dried figs, olives,
and nuts. In Paris, Metz, and other cities with Jewish communities, Jewish
bakeries sell challah, the braided loaf fortified with eggs that is eaten on
the Sabbath, as well as bagels covered with poppy or sesame seeds.
Most bread is sliced in the kitchen or at table, or else broken off in
chunks, to eat with a meal. Bread and crumbs have numerous uses in
cooking. Sprinkled on top of a dish of meat, vegetables, or potatoes that
is baked in the oven, they form an attractive crust. Panade is a carryover
from poorer days and peasant traditions, when adding bread to soup made
a heartier meal. The taste for croûtons (toasted slices of bread) with soup
remains. Croûtons are placed in the bottom of onion soup bowls, and they
accompany fish soups.
When bread-baking practices were standardized and mechanized in the
second half of the twentieth century, quality declined. Recently, some
bakers have begun to reverse this trend. They use older processes, such as
proofing with sourdough or wheat flour starter instead of with fast-rising
yeast. They choose better ingredients, such as organic, unrefined, or stone-
ground flours. The old-style processes are slower. They require more labor,
skill, and attention from the baker, however, the artisanal methods result
in bread that has a deeper flavor, a silkier and more elastic crumb, and
better keeping qualities. The old-style breads cost more than industrially
produced loaves but taste so much better that people seek them out.
WINE
Wine has been produced on French soil since antiquity. Today, France
is the premier producer in the world, responsible for a fifth of global
production. Wine has long been thought of as hygienic and nourishing, a
safe beverage that gives life and strength. Before the modern understand-
ing of water cleanliness and contamination, it really was often safer to
drink wine, beer, and cider, effectively sterilized through the presence of
alcohol. Wine was usually mixed with water. In the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury, poet Charles Baudelaire evoked the infinitely variable “soul” of wine
in a series of poems. The “different” wines drunk by rag-pickers, assassins,
and lovers, not to mention poets1 lead variously to drunkenness (either
divine or simply boorish), spiritual transcendence, poetic inspiration,
earthly contentment, and deep sleep. As recently as the late 1930s, wine
consumption averaged 170 liters (45 gallons) per person yearly, about a
half-liter (the better part of a pint) each day. It usually was drunk mixed
with water. The high level of alcohol consumption led to high levels of
liver problems and alcoholism. In certain métiers or trades, such as among
Historical, economic, and religious signifi-

cance contribute to the importance of wine,
the national beverage. Courtesy of Christian
Verdet/regard public-unpact.
tannery workers, old drinking traditions have not disappeared. This causes
concern for colleagues, as heavy drinking is now understood to threaten
health and safety. Today, wine is drunk undiluted but in smaller quanti-
ties. The average stands at approximately 60 liters (15.75 gallons) of wine
per person each year, or less than one glass each day. Although only one
in four French men and women regularly drinks wine, it is essential to the
culture of the table.
Alcoholic beverages generally are always accompanied by food, and wine
is integrated into meals. For an everyday meal, people drink water and
wine, taking them separately; diluting wine with water is now quite rare. A
separate wine for each course is de rigueur for formal and celebration meals.
Wine sets off food, and vice versa; each brings out the tastes and textures of
the other to best advantage. It is one of the components that contributes to
making a meal complete—structured, harmonious, and balanced—and as
enjoyable as possible. The individual flavor and character of each wine de-
rives from the grapes as well as from the production processes. Some wines
are dryer, having less sugar, and others sweeter. Some are lighter and sim-
pler in flavor, others richer and more complex. Tradition and experiment
suggest rules of thumb for pairing wine and food, although combinations
ultimately depend on personal preference. Dry Champagne marries well
with just about anything and may be drunk throughout an entire meal.
Sweet white wines such as Sauternes, any Muscat, and Monbazillac pair
with foie gras or with a salty appetizer at the beginning of a meal. Dry white
wines accompany fish or seafood to good effect. Red wines that are light
in character complement chicken dishes, veal, and charcuterie. Full-bodied
red wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Languedoc set off sturdy or rich
savory foods, such as red meats and cheese.
Although wine drinking overall has declined, the trend is to drink better
quality wines. Standards and methods of production vastly improved
throughout the twentieth century. Today, even the cheapest vin ordinaire
(everyday wine) tends to be of decent quality. The gut-searing piquette
of days past has practically disappeared. Since 1975, the consumption of
fine wines has doubled. These are the exceptional wines that mature and
develop over time (measured in years), improving over a long, although
finite, period. Of course, most people simply purchase inexpensive bottles
along with the rest of the groceries. Such bottles are not meant to be kept
or aged after bottling. They are best drunk within at most a few months.
Cooking assigns wine a large number of tasks. Both whites and reds are
used for flavoring. In larger amounts, wine is a cooking medium for meat
stews and bean dishes. After a piece of meat is sautéed in a pan, wine is
poured in over high heat to deglaze the pan and mix with the meat juices
to form a sauce. The alcohol cooks off, leaving only the flavor (and color,
if red). Poured cold over fruit or berries, wine forms a marinade. Fruit
macerated or soaked in wine acquires tenderness as well as flavor.
MEAT
In today’s affluent society, consumption of la viande (meat) is high.
Concerns for health are causing perceptible shifts in this pattern, although
for the moment the trend to eat significantly less meat occurs largely at the
highest rungs of the economic ladder; there are few vegetarians in France.
France is the foremost producer of meat in the European Union. It raises
more than enough for its own population, but imports to meet the large
demand for cuts such as steaks and roasts. On average, each person eats 100
kilograms (220 pounds) of meat yearly, only slightly behind Australians
(110 kilograms or 242 pounds yearly) and Americans (105 kilograms or
231 pounds) as the biggest consumers of meat in the world. Meat is the
centerpiece for most main meals. French cooks have the reputation of
being creative and frugal, ingenious and resourceful. They have invented
succulent dishes that use all parts of animals slaughtered for meat, wasting
nothing, although the modern lifestyle prefers fast, simple preparations.
Beef and Veal

Most boeuf (beef) comes from the powerful white Charolais cows
originally used as draft animals or from cows formerly bred for milk: the
black-and-white Normande and the Salers from the Auvergne. French
butchering practices differ from American. The cuts of meat are more
numerous and smaller. Nearly all methods of cooking are used for beef:
boiling, stewing, braising, frying, sautéing, grilling, roasting, and broiling.
Thin steaks are accompanied by fried potatoes for steak-frites. Thicker
steaks are eaten bleu (“blue,” quite rare), saignant (“bloody,” rare), or à point
(medium rare), according to preference. Tastes do not run to well-cooked
steaks. Overcooking dries out the meat, ruining the flavor as well as the
texture. For hachis parmentier (shepherd’s pie), ground beef is arranged in a
baking pan between two layers of potatoes mashed with milk. The dish is
baked, then served cut in squares. Beef or horse chopped up and eaten raw
is tartare. The delicate, sweet-tasting raw meat is garnished with pungent,
highly flavored condiments, including chopped onion, mustard, salt,
pepper, capers, pickles, and parsley; sometimes a raw egg is broken over
the tartare. Fattier cuts of beef are cut into small chunks or cubes, then
cooked slowly to make stews. Provençal boeuf en daube, flavored with red
wine and orange peel, and boeuf Bourguignon, or beef stew with Burgundy,
mushrooms, bacon, and small onions, are typical regional dishes. Pot-
au-feu combines several types of meat for a rich boiled dinner.
Veal is considered white meat, rather than red, because of its color.
Cuts of veal are roasted, sautéed, grilled, or stewed.
Lamb, Horse, Venison, and Goat

Studded with garlic and perfumed with rosemary, a roasted gigot
d’agneau (leg of lamb) is the favorite celebration or Sunday meal. Lamb
gives chops, meat for stewing, and racks (with bones in) for roasting. It
features in recipes adopted from the cuisines of France’s former colonies,
such as Moroccan tagines, stews cooked in an earthenware pot with a con-
ical cover and a hole in the top like a chimney through which the steam
escapes, leaving only the concentrated flavors of the dish.
Cheval (horse), much of it imported from the United States, is eaten on
a smaller scale than in the past. Large quantities of horse bones at Upper
Pleistocene sites at Solutré, in Burgundy, date the consumption of horse
to prehistoric times. Before horses were domesticated, the preferred hunt-
ing method was to drive large numbers of them off the edge of a cliff. In
the early Christian era, eating horse was frowned upon, as the practice
was associated with pagan rituals. Two popes, Gregory III in 732, and
Zaccharias in 751, forbade eating horsemeat. Their interdictions affected

consumption throughout Europe. By the nineteenth century, any horse-
meat that was available was cheap because it was unpopular. In the 1850s,
the government promoted horsemeat, on the principle that it would
improve the diet of the laboring classes, and productivity would rise. In
1866, the first boucherie chevaline, or boucherie hippophagique, opened in
Paris. A few of the specialized butcher shops remain. Horse enjoyed a
short-lived rise in popularity after the mad cow scares of the 1990s, espe-
cially in the Paris region and in the Northeast toward Belgium. Horse is
darker red than beef, lean, and flavorful. It is prepared like good-quality
beef, such as chopped raw and garnished in tartare or cooked as steaks
and cutlets. Chevreuil (venison) is available in markets and on restaurant
menus in the form of steaks, sausages, and dried sausages. Chèvre (goat) is
eaten on Corsica, primarily in stewed and braised dishes. Chevreau (kid)
is eaten in the South in the early spring.
Pork and Charcuterie

Porc (pork) is relatively inexpensive and served in roasts, fillets, steaks,
stews, chops, and ribs. In 1808, the food writer Grimod de la Reynière
praised the pig as “encyclopedic” and a “generous animal.”2 He meant
that nearly every part is edible, including the skin. The dictum Tout est
bon dans le cochon (Everything from the pig is good) echoes this observa-
tion. In a historically rural country, it was a mark of prosperity to be able
to keep a pig, which would be slaughtered for its meat. Today, farm-raised
sanglier (boar, wild pig) is also cooked using similar methods as for pork.
A cochon de lait (suckling pig) is roasted whole. Pieds de porc (trotters, pigs’
feet) are braised, and then fried or baked, or pickled.
More than any other meat, pork takes to processing through salt-
ing, drying, smoking, and pickling. The range of charcuterie—cured and
cooked preparations primarily from pork—testifies to the ingenuity of
generations of butchers and charcutiers. In the past, smoking and dry-
ing preserved meat that could not be consumed right away and must
be stored against hunger. Whereas the wealthy could afford freshly
slaughtered meat, charcuterie was food for the poor. Today, the taste
for charcuterie is general; some preparations are marked with the AOC
(Controlled Denomination of Origin).
Lard, meaty fresh bacon, is indispensable. Small pieces flavor omelets,
enrich soups and stews, and garnish salads, potatoes, and vegetables.
Lardons are strips or cubes of pork back fat or lean salt pork that are sea-
soned, then tucked into a roast, added to stews, and pan-fried to add to
salads. Richly fatty, salty, and crisp, lardons are served to accompany a
before-dinner drink. Saucisses or fresh sausages require cooking before
being consumed, whereas saucisses sèches or saucissons secs (dry or salami-
type sausages) need only to be sliced. Dry sausages have a firm, oily texture
and a sharp flavor from the salt, pepper, and other spices that flavor them,
such as whole peppercorns. Whole green pistachios may add sweetness
and crunch to a hunter’s venison sausage. Saucisses de Morteau, boiling
sausages, are recognized by their seal and a tiny wooden peg tied into the
end of the sausage; the enormous, lumpy Jésus de Morteau was originally
a Christmas sausage. Merguez are spiced beef or lamb sausages of North
African origin, outstanding when cooked on a grill. Boudin noir (blood
sausage) is coagulated beef or pig blood. It has a soft, rich, unctuous tex-
ture, and is purplish-black in color. It is double-cooked: lightly poached,
then pan-fried. Andouille or andouillettes is chitterling sausage, made of
pig intestines and stomach that are cleaned, marinated, smoked, soaked,
and then cooked. Sliced andouille has a firm, chewy texture and a swirly
appearance from the strips that compose it. Rillettes, native to Tours, is a
finely textured pork sausage made from bits of the belly, shoulder, and
gullet. Braised in fat, with vegetables and spices added for flavor, the meat
breaks down into a smooth, pale, creamy, mass. Rillettes are served sliced
into rounds and spread on crusty bread or toast to accompany an apéritif
such as a glass of dry white wine. Jambons (hams), boiled and smoked,
are a staple. French hams are less salty than American, and none have a
sweet coating on the outside. Some hearty stews are based on chunks of
fresh ham. Ham is eaten as an appetizer, as part of a light lunch, or sliced
into an omelet or quiche. It appears in the spectacular cold preparation
jambon persillé from Burgundy. Bits of pink ham and chopped bright green
parsley are molded in clear aspic to make colorful, jewel-like slices. Dry,
salty hams sliced paper-thin are eaten with figs and slices of melon, like
the Italian treatment of prosciutto.
Offal
In defiance of mathematics, butchers call les abats (offal) the cinquième
quartier (fifth quarter) of a slaughtered animal. The “noble” cuts, or steaks
and roasts, derive from the two forequarters and hindquarters. Les abats
are the rest: organ meats, glands, the feet, the head. Offal has always been
the cheapest meat, although the choice pieces—calf livers, kidneys, and
brains—were often reserved for feasts or celebrations. Franç ois Rabelais,
the priest turned physician, professor, and scribbler, wrote an offal feast
into his novel Gargantua (1534): Les tripes furent copieuses, comme entendez,
et tant friandes estoient que chacun en leichoit ses doigtz (“The tripe was so
copious and so luscious, that everyone licked their fingers”). There are
few specialist tripiers these days, but butchers and supermarkets sell offal.
Pale, delicate foie de veau (calf liver) is coated with a minimal dusting of
flour, then gently sautéed in butter, or lightly stewed or braised with a
sauce such as tomato and red wine. Livers are also grilled, and pork liver
is used in pâté. Rognons de veau (calf kidneys) have the finest texture and
flavor, but pork and lamb kidneys are eaten as well, sometimes as brochettes
(grilled on skewers). Beef kidney requires braising, as it is large and firm.
Tripes (tripe or stomach) have a honey-comblike appearance. Cooked à la
mode de Caen, tripe acquires an apple flavor from cider or Calvados, and
a tender texture from slow braising, traditionally overnight. Gras double is
beef tripe that is cleaned, cooked, and ready to eat. The langue (tongue)
from a cow, calf, or lamb is boiled or braised, then served with a sauce
having a strong acidic component from tomatoes, lemon, vinegar, or wine.
Lamb or calf cervelles (brains) are marinated, then fried or sautéed. Ris de
veau (sweetbreads, i.e., the thymus gland and sometimes the pancreas),
animelles (testicles; also called, metaphorically, frivolités), and coeur de
boeuf (beef heart) are eaten. Tête de veau (calf’s head) is carefully boned
so that the features are maintained, then rolled before cooking. Beef and
lamb offal further features in the East European and North African Jewish
and Muslim cuisines that enrich French cooking.
Poultry and Rabbit

La volaille (poultry) is a versatile basic. France exports more poulet
(chicken) than any other country in the world. Most birds are raised on
industrial chicken farms, although domestic demand increases for organic
and free-range birds. The blue-footed, white-feathered, red-crested coq
gaulois or Gallic cock that is the symbol of France is a Bresse fowl and has
the AOC; they are sold with head and feet intact. Whole chickens are
roasted to a golden brown. Cut into pieces, they are fricasseed or braised.
Elegant suprême de poulet is a chicken breast stuffed with vegetables sliced
very fine, then garnished with a red wine sauce. Poule-au-pot (“chicken in
the pot”) is a favorite dish for a weekend meal. Like the beef pot-au-feu,
it is a boiled dish that gives both soup and a main course from the meat.
Chapon (capon), pintade (Guinea fowl), canard (duck), oie (goose), and
dinde or dindon (turkey) are eaten. Duck is considered dark or red meat,
and it is served with the breast done slightly rare and pink. Turkey and
goose are fare for the Christmas season; however, turkey is in demand year
round. The game birds caille (quail), pigeonneau (squab), faisan (pheasant),
perdrix (partridge), bécasse (woodcock), and bécassine (snipe) are consid-

ered special treats. The small birds, which tend to dry out, are often sold
already barded or wrapped with strips of bacon or salt pork that melt dur-
ing cooking.
Lapin (rabbit) and lièvre (hare) are sold with poultry. The association
derives from the practice of keeping chickens and rabbits in proximity in
a basse-cour (farmyard). Today, rabbit and hare are farmed, but the wild
animals are fair game for amateur hunters. Rabbit responds especially well
to moist cooking such as a braise. Civet de lapin is rabbit stew flavored with
red wine and thickened with the rabbit’s blood or with pig blood, giving a
distinctive unctuous feel on the tongue and a dark color.
Foie gras and Confit d’oie

The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Romans ate foie gras d’oie or fattened
goose liver3; French household manuals from as early as the sixteenth
century give explicit instructions for fostering grand foie (“big liver”) in
geese4 through gavage (force-feeding with grain). Geese lack a gag reflex,
so they can swallow about a cup of grain at a time if it is gently funneled
into their throats. The resulting fat is stored primarily in their livers, which
enlarge and develop the characteristic silky, melting texture. The tradition
was long associated with Jewish communities in Metz and Strasbourg, as
kosher dietary laws permitted eating fowl. Most foie gras now comes from
several departments in the Southwest; ducks are given the same treat-
ment as the geese. Some fresh livers are sold raw to be cooked at home.
More frequently they are cooked first, then sold jarred or canned. At this
point the foie gras requires no further cooking. Whole lobes are considered
higher quality; large sections from different livers that are lightly pressed
together are less expensive; mixtures of foie gras and fats resemble pâtés.
It is eaten hot or cold, usually as an appetizer or first course. Hot prepara-
tions of foie gras are in fact heated just enough to bring out the flavors and
texture. Good foie gras is pink and firm and has a clean-looking shine. It
pairs with jellies and with fortified or sweet wines. The traditional combi-
nation of foie gras with truffles is considered the ultimate indulgence.
Plump geese and ducks raised for foie gras can be cooked and then stored
in their own fat, for confit d’oie or confit de canard (preserved goose or duck).
The rendered fat prevents the meat from coming into contact with air,
and it is used in cooking; before refrigeration, making confit was essential
for storing the meat. Today, both the meat prepared in this fashion and
the flavors of the fats are much appreciated. Goose fat lends outstand-
ing flavor when used to pan-fry potatoes, vegetables, and omelets. Goose
or duck fat flavors cassoulet, the hearty stew associated with the towns
of Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, and Toulouse. The combination of pork
rinds, duck, goose, or lamb with haricots blancs (navy beans) is baked in a
slow oven. Traditionally, the brown crust must be punched into the pot
seven or eight times during baking; the exact number is a matter of debate
among cooks and members of one of the gastronomic confréries (brother-
hoods or associations) that is devoted to cassoulet.
EGGS
Les oeufs (eggs) are made into innumerable dishes for lunch and dinner;
they are not eaten at breakfast. Eggs appear as omelets and soufflés and in
quiche Lorraine, short pastry filled with savory custard flavored with ham
or smoked bacon, grated cheese, nutmeg, and black pepper. In the South,
flat, round frittatas heavy with vegetables or potatoes are sliced into
wedges like a cake for a summer meal. Eggs are scrambled, fried, poached,
hard boiled, softboiled, baked, and stuffed. Hard boiled eggs are combined
with vegetables and a sturdy sauce to make a main dish; poached eggs
are garnished with a clear sauce such as a red wine reduction for oeufs en
meurette, an elegant entrée. Eggs are essential in baking cakes and pastries,
yolks are used in custards, and whites are beaten up into meringues. As
in the United States, the term egg refers automatically to a chicken egg,
although markets and farm stands sell eggs from geese, ducks, and quail.
FISH
Home cooks prepare poisson (fish) and fruits de mer (seafood) less fre-
quently than they do meat because the cooking is perceived as difficult
or delicate. In restaurants, by contrast, people order nearly as much fish
as meat.5 As in many coastal countries, industrial fishing has exhausted
natural populations, and waste and toxins pollute fishing waters. The
same is true for France’s rivers, which have supplied very little fish since
the mid-twentieth century. Farm fishing adds to the supply but stresses
the environment. Cultivated fish further lack the flavor and texture of their
wild counterparts. The international trade networks and the use of freezers
make most kinds of fish and shellfish available year round.
Creamy fish and seafood soups including bisques are popular in the
Atlantic region. Bouillabaisse is a Provenç al specialty from the Côte
d’Azur. As with any great dish that is widely loved, every bouillabaisse cook
claims an authentic and superior recipe. Most interpretations involve a
base of vegetables (onions, garlic, tomatoes) and herbs, to which stock
or water is added, followed by several kinds of fish and shellfish. Rascasse

(Mediterranean rockfish, scorpion fish) is the cornerstone. Other fish
added according to preference include loup de mer or bar (sea bass), merlan
(whiting), Saint-Pierre (John Dory), and spiny-scaled grondin (gurnard).
Saffron gives color and flavor. It is common to add a few fennel seeds and
a shot of anise-flavored liquor such as pastis or some white wine. Fish soups
are accompanied by a red-brown rouille (“rust”), the sauce that takes its
color from cayenne pepper. For rouille, olive oil is beaten into a mashed
potato or some bread crumbs, then flavored with mashed fresh garlic, chil-
ies or cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper; sometimes an egg yolk is added to
make the sauce richer. Rouille is spread on toast or stirred by the spoonful
directly into the soup. Bourride, another fish soup, lacks tomatoes but con-
tains mussels along with white fish such as cabillaud (cod) and lotte (monk-
fish). Bourride is pale in color and enriched with cream. It is served with
toast and aïoli, fresh mayonnaise flavored with crushed garlic. Oursinade
is fish soup served with sea urchins and a creamy mixture of egg yolks and
butter.
Fish with the best texture and flavor is not disguised in soup, but rather
poached, grilled, baked, broiled, or steamed; frying and smoking feature
in fish cookery, as well. Saumon (salmon) has been overfished from the
Loire River where it was once plentiful; imported Atlantic salmon is what
is usually eaten. The flatfish turbot (turbot) and sole (sole) are among the
finest fish eaten. They have inspired numerous preparations, some with
stuffings made of finely chopped vegetables, herbs, and shellfish. Raie
(skate, ray) gives triangular ailes (wings). The silky, moist flesh has long,
delicate flakes and is best treated with the utmost simplicity, unless very
large. Because of its famously hideous appearance, lotte (monkfish) is,
exceptionally, never sold whole, but always beheaded. It has flavorful,
meaty flesh and no bones. It is eaten in stews, and, because of the un-
usual firmness of the flesh, it is the only fish that is rolled and tied into
roasts. Other fish that feature in soups and sauces, as well as main dishes,
are anguille (eel), daurade (bream), carrelet (plaice), thon (tuna), brochet
(pike), carpe (carp), rouget or barbet (mullet), and merlu (hake). Fine-
fleshed truite (trout) appears in classic preparations such as au bleu. Trout
cooked au bleu is poached in spiced, herbed cooking liquid acidulated with
vinegar. In a successful au bleu, the fish dramatically curls and splits. Fish
cooked à la meunière is floured and pan fried, sprinkled with lemon juice
and chopped parsley, and drizzled with browned butter. Savory mousses,
dumplings, and loaf-shaped terrines are based on fish that is ground to a
smooth paste then mixed with seasonings. Quenelles are light-textured fish
dumplings that are poached and sauced. In the South, strongly flavored
Mediterranean sardines are fried or else arranged on grape leaves and vine
twigs, then grilled, so that the fish absorb the flavor of the vines.
Harengs (herring) are no longer fished in French waters, but supplies are
purchased from elsewhere. Herring and maquereau (mackerel), both oily
fish, are often lightly smoked, then broiled or served as fillets with green
salad. Hareng bouffi is in fact a whole herring, intact but still “stuffed” with
spawn. This delicacy is lightly salted, then smoked. Rollmops or herring
fillets marinated in vinegar are served cold with boiled potatoes. Stockfisch
(dried salted cod) is soaked in water or milk to rehydrate it and reduce
the salt. For brandade de morue, the mashed salt cod is mixed with mashed
potatoes or bread crumbs, milk or cream, and salt and pepper, then baked.
Accras (Caribbean fried codfish balls) have become a popular appetizer
and are purchased freshly made from caterers.
SHELLFISH
Mollusks such as briny, silky huîtres (oysters) and palourdes (clams)
are eaten raw on the half-shell and cooked, such as in creamy bisques.
Moules (mussels) are always cooked; moules-frites is a favorite bistro meal,
although ostensibly of Belgian origin. The moules are steamed open in
a broth lightly flavored with tomato. This becomes the sauce; the fried
potatoes are on the side. To eat moules, people use one of the half-shells
as a spoon and scoop out the meat from the other mussels. Coquilles Saint-
Jacques and pétoncles (large and small scallops) are sold with the smooth
orange roe sac attached to the white cylinder of flesh. Scallops are quickly
seared over high heat or baked in a sauce that is somewhat liquid. Shell
fish appear in soups and sauces and in stuffings for larger fish.
The Mediterranean coast provides oursin (sea urchin), an echinoderm
having a porcupine-like exterior but yellow-orange lobes that are buttery in
texture and sweetly briny. While living on the Côte d’Azur, Pablo Picasso
painted the picture Le Gobeur d’oursins (1946) showing a happy eater gob-
bling (gober) down this delicacy directly from the shell. Crustaceans such
as crevettes (shrimp) from the North Atlantic, and crevettes grises (tiny
North Sea prawns) are often paired with a creamy sauce. Étrilles (small
crabs) lend excellent flavor to soups. Tourteaux (larger crabs) appear with
smaller shellfish and with homard (lobster) on spectacular cold seafood
platters. Larger than shrimp but smaller than lobster in size, langoustines
(Dublin Bay prawns) and langoustes (crayfish) appear in cold and in hot
preparations. The Mediterranean cephalopods are popular quickly fried
and served with slices of lemon, or else slowly braised. Calmars or encornets
(squid) are also stuffed. Reddish, firm-fleshed poulpe (octopus) is cut into
pieces for cold dressed salads or braising. Seiches (cuttlefish) are cooked
whole.
SNAILS
In France, as in other parts of Europe such as Italy, mounds dating to
Roman times attest the long tradition of eating escargots (snails), mollusks
found on land. Snails are most often prepared in the typical Burgundian
fashion. They are cleaned, then replaced in the shells, which are filled up
with butter mashed with chopped herbs and garlic. In the oven, the but-
ter melts over the tiny beast, making a highly flavored sauce that can be
sopped up with a piece of bread. For serving, plates with round concavities
stabilize the shells, so they do not roll. Special utensils are used: a rounded
tongs to hold the shell steady, and a miniature fork with sharp tines to
spear the snail.
FROGS
The grenouilles (frogs) to which the French owe their nickname are
indeed widely appreciated. Fresh water lakes were the source for frogs dur-
ing the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when they were especially
popular. Today, they are imported frozen from Turkey; cuisses de grenouilles
(frog legs) are flown in frozen from China, which has a much older tradi-
tion of eating frog.6 The cuisses de grenouille have a silky, smooth texture
and a slightly fishy flavor. They are best deep-fried or pan fried. Like fish,
frog legs are served with slices of lemon for garnish.
BUTTER AND OIL

It used to be possible to distinguish northerners from southerners by the
way they said “yes” (oui). Northerners spoke the langue d’oï l or language of
oï l, while southerners spoke the langue d’oc. North was also distinguished
from south by the fat used as a cooking medium. Northerners used graisse
de boeuf (suet, beef fat) and saindoux (lard, pork fat) from their animals.
Southerners used huile d’olive (olive oil) pressed from the fruit grown in
their warmer territories. Theoretically, beurre (butter) and other animal
fats were to be avoided on fast days, although the Catholic Church granted
dispensations to areas where oil was rare and expensive.7
The best farmhouse butter, associated with the cattle regions of
Normandy and Brittany, has a deep yellow color and a richly developed
flavor. It is used in cooking and is indispensable in pastry making. Butter

is spread on bread for a plain tartine and for sandwiches with ham, hard
sausage, or cheese. Butter is associated with distinguished, rich cooking,
referred to as la cuisine au beurre (butter cuisine). By today’s standards,
however, yesterday’s generous use of butter is considered heavy-handed
and old-fashioned.
Olive oil is key to Provenç al cooking, with its greater use of grains,
vegetables, and fruits—France’s local version of the Mediterranean diet.
Fats and oils carry fatty acids essential to growth and reproduction, along
with fat-soluble vitamins A and E. In liquid vegetable oils, especially olive
oil, the more healthful unsaturated fats predominate over saturated fat
(associated with blood cholesterol increase). Average consumption for
olive oil is 1.6 kg annually and growing8; olive oil connoisseurship is on
the rise, as well. The grades and labels for olive oil reflect the pressing
(first or subsequent), degree of acidity, and quality of flavor. Olive oil var-
ies in color from bright green to yellow and in flavor from lively, fruity,
and peppery for the green oils, to very mild. France produces olive oil in
the South and imports it from Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey.
Mild-flavored huile de colza (canola or rapeseed oil) and huile de tournesol
(sunflower oil) are domestically grown and the most widely used oils for
everyday cooking and for making salad dressings and mayonnaise. Rarer
huile de pépins de raisins (grapeseed oil), de noisettes (hazelnut), and de noix
(walnut) feature in salads and dressings that show off their outstanding
taste, and the nut oils are used in baking. Imported huile d’arachide (peanut
oil) is neutral in flavor and has a high smoking point, so it is used for deep-
frying and pan-frying over high heat. Huile de palme or de coprah (palm oil)
and huile de soja (soy oil) are used in industrial contexts such as making
packaged cookies and biscuits.
MILK, CREAM, FRESH CHEESE, AND YOGURT

Lait (milk) and laitages (dairy products) have always been much cheaper
than meat, while providing protein and, in the case of cheese, preserv-
ing milk over time. Most milk sold is from cows; most goat and sheep
milk goes into cheese. Fresh milk in France is pasteurized (heat treated
at 75–85 degrees C for 15–30 seconds) or sterilized at even higher tem-
peratures. Milk that is flash-treated at 145 degrees C for UHT (ultra-haute
température or ultra-high temperature) sterilization can then be stored at
room temperature in sealed tetrapacks until opened. Milk is drunk plain
primarily by infants and children. Hot milk is essential to the breakfast
drinks: café au lait (coffee with milk) and hot chocolate, also chicory, and
chicory coffee. In cooking, milk is added to soups, purées of vegetables and
potatoes, and sauces.
Cream is beaten into crème Chantilly (whipped cream) and added to
soups, sauces, and baked gratins to give them smoothness and body. Crème
fraîche is slightly fermented, akin to sour cream. It has numerous uses in
cooking. A dollop garnishes desserts made with slightly acidic cooked
fruits and cakes that are on the dry side. Fromage blanc is not technically
cheese, but simply milk that has been curdled; the curds are beaten to
create a smooth texture. Fromage blanc is eaten as a sweet or a savory.
Garnished with chopped chives, salt, and pepper, it is the cheese course
or the basis of a light lunch. Sprinkled with sugar and served with fruit,
it is dessert.
Yaourt or yogourt (yogurt) originated near the Black Sea and the Caucasus,
eventually spreading through the Middle East and central Europe. Yogurt
has been widely eaten in France only since the 1960s. Most yogurt is
industrial, bought plain or sweetened in individually sized containers. It is
eaten at breakfast, for a snack, or to replace the cheese course.
Cheese
Fromage (cheese), like wine and bread, is synonymous with France.
Some types, such as hard Cantal and blue-veined Roquefort, made of
sheep’s milk, were already attested in Roman Gaul. Cheese was vital to
store milk. Today, the appreciation of cheese is so highly developed that
cheese is eaten as a course all its own in a full meal. It is the last savory
course, before the fruit or dessert. To conclude a formal or festive meal,
a plate of two or three or more cheeses is passed around. Each person
takes a small slice or triangle of the cheeses, to be eaten with bread and
wine. Factory produced cheeses are available in supermarkets. Artisanal
and farm-house products are usually bought in specialty shops and market
cheese stands. Aged cheeses develop heady odors. People like to joke that
the higher a cheese smells, the better it tastes. This is often true, and some
of the worst olfactory offenders are quite mild in flavor.
Most names for cheese refer to the place of origin, although other
descriptors are used. Any goat milk cheese, whether very young and
moist, or aged, crumbly, and firm, is a chèvre. Goat cheese in a small
round disk is called Cabécou. The flat-topped pyramid with a flower
of blue mold on the outside is Pouligny-Saint-Pierre. The tiny round
Crottin de Chavignol is named after the Loire village, but crottin (a
horse or sheep dropping) is an earthy, humorous reference to its shape.
Master cheese maker and affineur (specialist in aging

cheese) Hervé Mons with goat milk cheeses, goats,
and colleagues in Saint-Haon-le-Châtel. Courtesy of
Christian Verdet/regard public-unpact.
Semisoft cow milk cheeses with white mold rinds are fromages à croûte
fleurie. These include Brie de Meaux, its more recently invented rela-
tive Camembert, the square Carré de l’Est, and Saint-Marcellin, which
becomes practically liquid when ripe and is eaten with a spoon. Mild,
creamy Savarin, named for the food-writer and gastronome Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin, is 75 percent fat. Red mold cheeses with washed rinds
include Époisses, Pont-l’Évêque, and Munster, which people eat with a
sprinkling of caraway seeds. For the softer cheeses, the rind is eaten, but it
must be trimmed off the firm cheeses. Pressed cheeses for slicing include
sweet-pungent Morbier, which has a blue-gray layer of wood ash across
the middle, Tomme de Savoie, and Cantal, which can be eaten quite dry.
Blue mold or blue veined cheeses include the Bleus d’Auvergne, Bleu
des Causses, and Roquefort. The family of hard cheeses that includes
Gruyère de Comté and Emmental are aged from curds that have gone
through an additional cooking process to make them firmer and dryer.
Grated hard cheese is sprinkled on dishes that are browned in the oven,
such as potatoes au gratin and the onion soup famously served at Les
Halles marketplace in Paris. Grated cheese flavors the light, savory puffs
called gougères often served as an appetizer.
Burgundian Baked Cheese Puffs (Gougères)

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• pinch salt
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup plus an additional 1/3 cup grated Gruyère cheese
Preheat the oven to 425° F.

To make the pâte à choux (puff paste), place the water, butter, and salt in
a saucepan, and bring to the boiling point. When the butter has melted
completely, remove the pan from the heat.
Add the flour, and stir it into the liquid, using a wooden spoon. Return the
pan to low heat, and continue to cook until the batter thickens, leaves
the side of the pan, and coheres into a ball. Remove the pan once again
from the heat.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is absorbed before
adding the next one. Mix in the 2/3 cup of grated cheese.
Use a pastry bag to squeeze the batter into rings, or else use two tablespoons
to drop the batter like cookies onto ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle
the additional 1/3 cup of grated cheese on the puffs.
Place the sheets in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the gougères are
golden brown and puffy. Serve warm or prick the bottoms with a skewer or
sharp-pointed knife to allow the steam to escape and cool on a wire rack.
HERBS, SPICES, AND CONDIMENTS FOR SAVORY COOKING

Most any home cook draws judiciously on a selection of mild épices
(spices) and herbes (herbs) to vary the texture, flavor, and color of foods.
The term spice usually refers to dried bark, buds, roots, and berries. Spices
are often–although not always–of exotic provenance. An herb is usually
a leaf. Many herbs are native to Europe if not to French territory. The
traditional and regional dishes are richly flavored, thanks in part to the
addition of herbs and spices, but they are not spicy.
As in many cuisines, sel (salt) and poivre (pepper) are the most basic
spices in French cooking. Along with proverbs about bread and wine,
proverbs about salt abound in France as elsewhere. Since about 700 B.C.E.,
salt has been harvested from Breton palus or paludes (marshes, salt flats).
Atlantic salt is harvested from the Île de Ré and the Guérande peninsula,
and Mediterranean salt comes from Aigues-Mortes. Historically, salt was

vital to preserve meat, and it is used this way in charcuterie. Common
refined fleur de sel (kitchen salt) is what most people keep on hand for
cooking and for table use. Coarser sea salts still gray from the presence of
marine minerals or flecked with seaweed add a decorative touch along with
their special flavors to finished dishes, especially any made with fish.
In the Southwest, sweet summer fruits such as figs and pears are cooked
with pepper, whose heat sets off the fruit. Whole black peppercorns
stud dried sausages, or a sausage may be coated with a crunchy hot
layer of cracked peppercorns. Removing the external coating of black
peppercorns leaves white pepper. This is used in light-colored dishes
such as mashed potatoes and cream sauces. White pepper is more
common in the kitchen than on the eating table. Green peppercorns are
picked before they are ripe, then pickled in brine to avoid discoloration.
They balance rich elements such as butter or cream to make sauces for
meats.
Most vinaigre (vinegar; from vin aigre, sour wine) is made from wine that
is fermented so that the alcohol converts to acetic acid. Cider vinegar,
made by the same process, is also used. Vinegar is a key condiment and
cooking ingredient. It goes into sauces including vinaigrette (oil and vin-
egar dressing), pickles, and marinades. It serves as a cooking medium and
to deglaze the pan for meat and fish sauces.
Moutarde (mustard), like vinegar, is ubiquitous in the kitchen and on
the table. The seeds are crushed or ground, then blended with spices and
vinegar to form a pungent mixture. Smooth Dijon mustard is made from
milder yellow seeds. Rustic, grainy, old-style mustard has in it brownish
bits of hull as well as crushed seed, and it is made from hotter red-brown
seeds. Mustard is a condiment for boiled meats, sausages, cold cuts, and
omelets. It flavors sauces, salad dressings, and glazes and dressings for
oven-bound dishes such as rabbit or chicken. Dishes labeled à la diable
(deviled) are seasoned with mustard.
Quatre épices (four spices) is a standard combination of white pepper,
cinnamon or dried ground ginger, nutmeg, and cloves that flavors pâtés
and meat dishes. Muscat (nutmeg) and macis (mace) are added to cooked
vegetables and sweet egg dishes such as custards. Clou de girofle (clove)
spices winter fruit compotes. Bright red threads of safran (saffron), the
dried stigmas and styles (female organs) from the Crocus sativus, is sprinkled
into fish soups and added to baked goods. It imparts a yellow-orange color
and a clean, warm flavor. Saffron adds color to egg glazes for pastry and to
butter used in fish and chicken dishes.
Carvi (caraway seed), associated with German and Scandinavian

cooking, is used in pickling and is served with Munster cheese. Anis
(anise seed), native to southern Europe, is the principal flavoring for
pastis and is used in fish dishes and southern pastries. Coriandre (corian-
der seed) is paired with meat, and genièvre (juniper berry) flavors game
and pork.
Standard combinations of herbs flavor many dishes. Fines herbes,
composed of fresh minced persille (parsley), cerfeuil (chervil), estragon
(tarragon), and ciboulette (chives), go into omelets, salad dressings,
and herbed mayonnaise. Bouquet garni includes sprigs of parsley, thym
(thyme), laurier (bay leaf), and sometimes sarriette (savory) and romarin
(rosemary). The herbs are tied together, then dropped into broths,
sauces, poaching liquids, and pots of vegetables to lend flavor in cooking.
Herbes de Provence is a mixture of dried herbs that may include rosemary,
basilique (basil), thyme, savory, tarragon, marjolaine (marjoram), and
lavande (lavender). It flavors roasts and chops as well as chicken des-
tined for baking, and it is added to southern sauces with a tomato base.
By itself, parsley is essential in cooking and as a raw garnish. Curly-leaf
parsley appears in the North; the flat-leaf variety is typical in the South.
Persillade is finely chopped parsley and either shallots or garlic added to
a hot dish just before the cooking is done. Sauge (sage) flavors pork and
game. Basil is the primary flavor, along with crushed garlic, salt, and olive
oil, in pistou (pesto) for stirring into vegetable and bean soups. Tarragon
flavors lamb and chicken and goes into sauces, and thyme is used in fish
dishes. A feuille de laurier (bay leaf) is added to marinades and to pots of
beans and lentils.
ONIONS, GARLIC, SHALLOTS, AND LEEKS

The Allium genus is all-important for French cooking. Chopped sau-
téed oignons (onions) combine with carrot and celery as the basis for
many dishes, and they are the principal ingredient in soupe à l’ognion
(onion soup). Cooking onions very slowly until they are sweet, soft, and
caramelized makes confit or savory jam that accompanies meat dishes;
flavored with mashed, salted anchovies, it tops Provençal pissaladière
(onion pizza). Minced échalottes (shallots) add zest to green salads. Ail
(garlic) is roasted, and whole unpeeled gousses (garlic cloves) accompany
chicken roasting in the oven. Along with tomatoes and olive oil, garlic is
ubiquitous in the cooking of the South. Poireaux (leeks) flavor soups and
sometimes appear in a bouquet garni used for soup. Vichyssoise is leek and
potato soup; this and a salad of braised leeks with vinaigrette dressing are
Braised leeks accompany poached fish. Courtesy of

Philippe Bornier.
the most common preparations. Ciboulette (chive) is used both raw and
cooked, as an herb.
GRAINS, PASTA, RICE, AND POTATOES

Of Italian origin, pâtes (pasta) seem to have been made in France by
northern Jews as early as the eleventh century and in Provence within the
next 200 years. The exception is Alsatian nouilles (egg noodles), an inno-
vation from the Rhineland. Later, pasta were made using hard or durum
wheat flour in Paris, Clermont-Ferrand, and Marseille.9 Today, most pâtes
eaten in France are made within the country, but the shapes borrow from
the Italian traditions. Pasta and noodles are most often boiled and eaten
as a side dish for meats.
Couscous, eaten in the former colonies of Tunisia, Morocco, and Al-
geria, has become a typical dish. Semolina flour (from hard wheat) and
water make a paste that traditionally was rubbed between the hands into
tiny balls. Couscous steams in the fragrant vapors coming up off a stew
whose ingredients vary: lamb, fish, seafood, greens, and vegetables are
all common components. A typical Moroccan couscous combines lamb,
pumpkin, carrots, turnips, onions, and chickpeas; the stew is then served
with the steamed pasta. Spicy Tunisian harissa (a paste of red pepper,
crushed garlic, coriander, cumin, and olive oil), more or less diluted with
hot water or broth, is added at table as a sauce. Sweet couscous prepared
with nuts, raisins, and flavorings such as rosewater is a festive dessert.

The word couscous refers both to the pasta and to the finished dish. Many
people have a couscoussier or couscous steamer in their home kitchens.
Dried industrial couscous is available, and people do steam it alone (with-
out making the stew) to eat as they would pasta of Italian origin.
Cracked wheat, or bulgur, is made into tabbouleh, the Lebanese salad
with olive oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley, cucumber, tomato, scallions,
and spices.
Riz (rice) was cultivated in the wet Camargue region from the seven-
teenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Rice consumption
has more than tripled since the 1970s, and now nearly all is imported.
Long-grained rice is used in cold salads and in side dishes for meat. Short-
grained or Arborio rices are made into desserts such as gâteau de riz (rice
cake) and puddings.
Orge (barley), used in making ale and then beer, is now little used in cook-
ing, although cream of barley, a powder ground from the grain, thickens
soups and boiled dishes. Seigle (rye) is used in bread-making and in a few
sweet baked goods, such as spice breads. New World maïs (corn) has been
adopted in a very limited fashion, as corn is still thought of primarily as
animal fodder. Corn is eaten as flakes in cereal, and canned corn added to
cold salads. More interestingly, Nice, formerly part of the Italian Piedmont,
borrows the Italian tradition of making polente (polenta) out of cornmeal,
and related preparations appear in Basque cooking. Épeautre (spelt) goes
into Provenç al soups, and it has come back into fashion among bakers of
organic and whole-grain breads. Blé noir or sarrasin (buckwheat), cultivated
in Brittany, is the key ingredient for the dark crêpes associated with that
region.
Breton Buckwheat Crêpes (Galettes bretonnes or galettes de sarrasin)

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Mix or pulse to blend together in a blender or food processor the flours

and salt. Add eggs, cider, milk, water, and melted butter to make a
thin batter. Let the batter stand for one hour, covered, or refrigerate
overnight.
Briefly blend or mix the batter once more. Heat a crêpe pan or large flat
saucepan until very hot. Brush lightly with butter, then pour in batter
to thinly coat the pan (about 1/3 cup of batter for a 12-inch pan). Swirl
the pan to spread the batter over the bottom of the pan and up its sides
(if using a crêpe pan). Cook about a minute, until the crêpe is brown on
the bottom and at the edges and set firm in the middle. Turn the crêpe
out flat onto a plate or board. Fold it in quarters or turn in the edges to
make a square. Serve hot, with a filling or plain.
Makes about 15 crêpes.
When exotic New World pommes de terre (“earth apples,” i.e., potatoes)
were first introduced, they were viewed with great suspicion. Now it is
difficult to imagine French cooking without them. No matter what the
preparation, the peel is not eaten, but always removed before cooking or
just before serving. Boiled or steamed potatoes are eaten in salads or tossed
with butter. Pommes frites (French fries or fried potatoes) are popular.
Potatoes are sliced and baked, pan-fried, sautéed, and added to stews and
soups. Purée de pommes de terre (mashed potatoes) is served as a side dish
Peeling potatoes for cooking. Most potatoes presently cultivated and eaten in
France are the BF 15, Bintje, and Ratte varieties. Courtesy of Hervé Depoil.
and may be further elaborated into fried croquettes (puffs). Potatoes are a
mainstay of student cafeterias and other industrial restaurants, where they
are usually bought frozen and already peeled, sliced, prepared for cooking,
or dried in powder for purée.
PULSES
In the past, légumes à gousses (pulses) were staples. Pulses are the edible
seeds of pod-bearing plants cultivated for food. Eaten in combination
with grain, peas and beans provide complete proteins that contribute to
a healthy diet with little meat or none at all. Pois chiches (chickpeas) and
fèves (fava beans) were particularly important in the southern regions.
Today, pulses usually accompany meat or fish as a separate course or side
dish. Dried green beans called haricots verts and chevriers go with lamb,
whose flavorful juices they absorb. Haricots blancs, cocos, and lingots (dried
white beans) combine with meat in rich stews such as garbure and cassoulet
and marry well with cream and tomatoes. Chickpeas go into couscous and
salads. Tiny, firm, green Puys lentils are used in salads and served with
salmon; larger, flatter, pale green and yellow varieties go into soups and
purées. Lentils and split peas are often combined with pork, sausages, or
bacon for flavor.
Fresh green and white beans at the Place des Halles market in Dijon. Courtesy
of Philippe Bornier.
VEGETABLES
The term légume (vegetable) as used in everyday speech covers several
botanical groups: roots, leaves, rhizomes, flowers, and even fruits such as
the tomate (tomato). Vegetables are eaten in savory preparations as side
dishes and as individual courses of a main meal, and they are prominent in
soups and stews. The French are masters of the salad, which may be a plain
tossed lettuce mixture, cooked pulses such as lentils tossed with vinaigrette
and some sliced onion, or a salade composée “composed” from whatever
is at hand and attractively arranged on a flat plate. The composed salads
often include cooked vegetables and pieces of cheese or meat, as well.
Among the root vegetables, carottes (carrots) are eaten cooked, rather
than raw, except when grated and dressed as part of a platter of crudités
(composed salad of raw vegetables—a colorful mosaic). Grated betteraves
(beets) also appear served in discrete, individually dressed mounds on the
plate of crudités. Steamed, mashed, or puréed, carrots form a vegetable
course. They feature in sturdy winter soups and stews to which navets
(turnips) are usually added, as well. Salsify or oyster plant (salsifis) is cooked
with butter, cream, or meat juice from whatever it will accompany. The
bulbous, hairy, forbidding-looking céleri-rave (celery root or celeriac) is
appreciated for its warm celery flavor and versatility. Once it is scrubbed
under running water, the outer rind is trimmed; and the vegetable is then
cut into chunks, braised in milk, and made into a purée or soup. Raw
celery root is grated, dressed with mustard vinaigrette or with cream, and
served with slices of salty dry ham. Small red and white radis (radishes)
are dipped in salt and eaten raw along with bread and butter. They also
appear in some cooked dishes, such as braised with lettuce and peas. The
giant, tempestuous raifort (horseradish) is grated and tempered with crème
fraîche or unsweetened whipped cream as a garnish for smoked fish. Horse-
radish also garnishes boiled meat dishes like pot-au-feu.
Chou (white cabbage) is eaten salted or pickled as choucroute
(sauerkraut), associated with Alsatian cooking. Curly-leafed chou de
Savoie or chou frisé (Savoy cabbage) is stuffed, added to soups and stews,
and braised. Greens such as sour oseille (sorrel) and spicy dark green
cresson (watercress) add color and flavor to soups and sauces. Narrowly
sliced into a chiffonnade (ribbons), sorrel lends its lemony tang to eggs
and fish. Épinards (spinach) are usually served cooked, although very
small, tender, young leaves appear in salads, sometimes garnished with
morsels of hot lard. Provence’s characteristic vegetable is chard, which is
often cooked with olive oil, pine nuts, and raisins as in other areas of the
Mediterranean. In the sweet version of tourte aux blettes (chard tart), from
Nice, eggs, grated apple, powdered sugar, and a dash of Parmesan cheese
make a custard that balances the flavor and texture of the vegetable.
France is the biggest producer in the world of compact, pale yellow endives
(Belgian endive). Raw endive leaves add a silky crunch to salad. Most
often the whole vegetable is steamed or blanched and served hot under a
béchamel sauce with ham.
Green salads are served after the main dish in a full meal, when their
cool crunch refreshes the palate; composed salads appear now on restaurant
menus as first courses or on full-sized plates as a main dish. Fresh laitues
(lettuces) mean green salad to most people. A head of lettuce is often
referred to simply as une salade (a salad). For plain green salad, Bibb-type
lettuce, Romaine, or green leaf lettuce is tossed with oil-and-vinegar
dressing that may be emulsified with mustard or flavored with a sliver of
garlic or a spoonful of minced shallot. Other popular salad greens include
scarole, escarole, or cornette (chicory or curly endive), mâche (corn salad
or lamb’s lettuce), and peppery roquette (rocket or arugula). A few classic
preparations call for cooked or braised lettuce, as in combination with
peas.
Haricots verts (fresh green beans, string beans, or French beans) are a
favorite vegetable across the country. They are boiled in salted water,
then served with butter alongside roasted or grilled meat. They combine
with other vegetables in composed salads and appear in soups and purées.
Petits-pois (fresh green peas) came into fashion in the seventeenth century
and have remained popular ever since. Classic simple preparations flavor
the peas with a small quantity of sugar, then add mint and butter or let-
tuce and cream. Tiny artichauts (artichokes) are eaten raw with salt; larger
ones are cooked whole then served with a vinaigrette or melted butter and
lemon as a sauce for dipping the leaves. The sweet hearts are braised in
water, lemon juice, and olive oil, or in a blanc or white cooking liquid
consisting of boiling water and a bit of flour. Céleri (celery) is blanched,
braised, and served with tomato sauce or meat marrow, alongside boiled
meats. Stalky cardes (cardoons) are cooked like artichoke hearts, then
dressed with a rich sauce such as hollandaise (based on butter and egg yolks)
or served à la bagna cauda, with the Provenç al dressing of olive oil, lemon,
minced garlic, and anchovy. Classical cooking gives methods for cooking
concombre (cucumber); however, it is most often eaten raw, seeded, and
sliced. It is dressed with olive oil and lemon in a salade grècque (Greek
salad) with tomatoes or else sauced with cream and chives or mint. Fleshy
fenouil (fennel bulb) is sliced raw to eat with lemon or with a full-fledged
dressing for a salad. It is also braised or blanched to be eaten cooked, and
it is an ingredient in some tomato sauces. Fennel stalks and leaves are
Everyday vegetables in inviting profusion: lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and

cauliflower at market. Courtesy of Philippe Bornier.
placed under fish that is grilling to give it flavor. White asperge (aspara-
gus), grown under mounds to avoid exposure to light, is preferred over
green. The vegetable is thick, sometimes woody toward the bottom, and
usually requires peeling, but it has a mild flavor. Asparagus are steamed
or boiled, often served with a creamy or eggy sauce such as hollandaise, or
with vinaigrette dressing.
Cooked chou-fleur (cauliflower) appears boiled or steamed in composed
salads; the florettes are fried; most often it is par-boiled then baked au gratin
with milk or cream and grated cheese. Chou-fleur d’Italie or broccoli (broccoli)
made its way to France from Italy and is still somewhat less common than
cauliflower. It is usually converted to purée or made into a cream soup.
The aubergine (eggplant), poivron (bell pepper), tomate (tomato), and
courgette (zucchini) are workhorses in the French kitchen. None are
native, but all flourish in the warm, dry Mediterranean climate of the
South. Indian eggplant was introduced to Spain during the Middle Ages
by the Moors and from there made its way to Italy and France. Peppers
and tomatoes are New World plants that were brought back to Europe in
the late Renaissance. Zucchini traveled from Italy into France. All four
are eaten stuffed with meat, rice, or breadcrumbs. Eggplant is roasted then
diced into cold salads. Zucchini puréed with cream and butter is a side
dish that is much appreciated in the summer. Tomato halves sprinkled
with herbs and bread crumbs and then baked to concentrate the flavors
accompany meat. Strips of roasted, peeled peppers are made into cold
salads. The quartet of vegetables is particularly associated with southern
cooking, as in the summer stew ratatouille.
Summer Vegetable Stew (Ratatouille)

• 7 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound zucchini and/or yellow crookneck squash, sliced into rounds
• 2 green or red peppers, seeded, membranes removed, and sliced
• 1 eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 pounds tomatoes, halved and seeded
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 6 sprigs thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
• 6 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 8 tablespoons chopped basil
• salt
• ground black pepper
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over moderate heat.
Sauté the zucchini about 6 minutes until lightly browned. Using a slot-
ted spoon, transfer to a large bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon of oil, then sauté the sliced peppers for 5 minutes, and
transfer to the bowl.
Add 3 tablespoons of oil to heat in the skillet, then put in the eggplant.
Stir to prevent the eggplant from sticking to the pan. Cook until the
eggplant is soft, light-colored, and smooth in texture (about 8 or 9 min-
utes). Add to the bowl with the other vegetables.
Pour the last tablespoon of olive oil into the pan, and sauté the onion and
garlic about 3 minutes, watching carefully to prevent them from brown-
ing much. Add the tomatoes, thyme and half the parsley. Simmer for 10
minutes. Return all the vegetables in the bowl back into the pan with
the tomatoes, stir gently to mix, and cook for 10 more minutes. The
vegetables should be cooked through and tender, but not mushy.
Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the rest of the parsley and the basil. Sea-
son with salt and pepper.
Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature.
Citrouille or potiron (pumpkin) is made into soups, sautéed in butter,

baked in the oven, and used in couscous. Occasionally it is co-opted for
service in egg desserts such as pumpkin flan or pumpkin crème brûlée.
MUSHROOMS
The fungi known as champignons (mushrooms) grow naturally in wooded
areas or meadows. In the past, they were also cultivated in caves and aban-
doned underground stone quarries. France is now the world’s third-largest
producer of cultivated mushrooms, of the type called champignons de Paris
or champignons blonds for their pale, creamy color. Mushrooms are sautéed,
fried, braised, baked, grilled, and put into soups. At best, they have a rich,
dark, mineral flavor and a natural sweetness. Other varieties are gathered
wild. Netted black morilles (morels) and dense, long-stemmed, golden
chanterelles or girolles (chanterelles) do appear in markets, and they are
often cooked in combination with cream and chicken. Mushrooming is
popular in the countryside, but mushrooms must be gathered under the
supervision of an experienced person who can distinguish edible ones
from poisonous varieties that look similar.
Truffles
All but impossible to cultivate, truffes (truffles) grow wild in forested
areas, usually underneath oak trees from which they derive carbonic
nutrients and to which they give back mineral salts and other elements.
Truffles are so highly prized that they are called diamants noirs (black dia-
monds). Although they look like dark chunks of coal or earth, they are
quite expensive and fetch high prices on the market. Truffles are especially
associated with the Périgord, where the best ones grow. Truffle hunters
develop an eye for locating patches in forested areas and are notoriously
secretive about this information. Truffles are so hard to spot that people
train pigs and dogs to sniff them out, although the four-legged assistants
must be prevented from eating their finds. Generous quantities of truffles
feature in the old aristocratic cuisine and in contemporary elite restaurant
cooking. Eggs delicately scrambled over very low heat with black truffle is a
typical treatment. Chicken roasted with slices of black truffle tucked under
the skin is called demi-deuil (half-mourning) because of the dark appear-
ance the truffles give the bird. For modest budgets, shavings of black truffle
are added to excellent effect to omelets, pâtés, and cream sauces for pasta.
Bits of truffle steeped in high-quality oils impart their perfume to salads.
FRUITS
Fresh fruits are eaten out of hand for a snack and as a sweet course at
the end of a meal. They are cooked into compotes and used to stuff pastries
and fill tarts. In the industrial context they are squeezed for juice and
puréed or reduced to syrups used to sweeten and flavor yogurt, ice cream,
and candy. Pommes (apples) are the most popular fruit and account for
approximately one-quarter of all fruit eaten. Sweet apples such as the
Golden Delicious are eaten out of hand, but most apples are transformed
by cooking into pastries and desserts. Tarte Tatin or upside-down apple
tart appears on restaurant dessert menus and is baked at home to end a
festive dinner. Apples are sliced into large pieces or quartered, caramel-
ized by sautéing in sugar and butter, then arranged in a pan with a single
layer of short crust on top. After baking, the tart is turned upside-down to
reveal the caramelized apples. The trick is to eat the dessert straight out
of the oven, otherwise the crust becomes soggy underneath the apples.
Hard, sour coings (quinces), available in the fall, are cooked into compote,
preserves, jellies, and pâte de coing (quince paste), which is enjoyed as a
Christmas sweet. Poires (pears) are eaten raw, poached, or baked in wine,
and on flat cakes. Rhubarbe (rhubarb), a member of the knotgrass family, is
treated like the firm fruits. Its long, red, fleshy, astringent stems are sliced,
cooked in syrup, and made into tarts and pastries.
Soft-fleshed, pitted drupes such as nectarines (nectarines) and meltingly
sweet brugnons (white nectarines), pêches (peaches), abricots (apricots), or
cerises (cherries) are placed whole in bowls on the table after a meal in
summer for dessert. Cooked, these fruits stuff pastries and top cakes; flavor
yogurt, ices, and ice creams; and form sauces that accompany pork or
game. Prunes (plums) came west to France with Crusaders returning from
Syria. Prunes d’Ente and fat, purple-black pruneaux d’Agen (prunes) are a
specialty of the Lot-et-Garonne region in the Southwest. The berries—
fraises (strawberries), framboises (raspberries), myrtilles (blueberries)—are
eaten fresh served in small bowls, and people take up sprays of delicate,
jewel-like groseilles (red currants) with the fingers, then pull the fruit right
off the stem with their teeth. These fruits rouges (“red fruits” or berries)
also garnish tarts and cakes. Raisins (grapes) are a late summer dessert. In
recent years the New Zealand kiwi has become extremely popular and is
now widely cultivated in France. Other fruits exotiques (“exotic” or tropi-
cal fruits) imported for sale in markets include mangoes and star-fruit.
Green and black figues (figs) and grenades (pomegranates) with their ruby
flesh have been cultivated for centuries in Provence. They are eaten raw
in the late summer when they ripen, and figs also appear in jams. Imported
bananes are widely available in shops and nearly always eaten raw. The
most popular melons are the small green-skinned varieties known as
Chantal, Cavaillon, and Charentais. Their juicy orange flesh is intensely
sweet and flavorful; they are usually served halved, to be eaten with a
spoon for a summer entrée. Pastèque (watermelon) is popular during the

summer in the South. Avocats (avocadoes) are technically fruits; how-
ever, they are used in salads and soups, frequently in combination with
shrimp and crabs. Oranges (oranges) are the most common of the thick-
skinned citrus fruits. Citrons (lemons) are used in both savory and sweet
preparations; in cooking they have a special affinity for fish, chicken, and
veal. Pamplemousses (grapefruit) are usually pressed into juice; they are
sometimes served peeled and sliced as a light first course. Citrons verts
(limes) are used in mixing drinks, and cédrats (citrons) are candied for use
in baking and confectionary.
JAMS, JELLIES, AND COMPOTES

La confiture, say the French, est comme l’intelligence: moins on en a, plus
on l’étale (Jam is like intelligence: the less you have, the more you spread
it around). Before modern refrigeration and freezing, making preserves
ensured that one could eat fruits in some form during the cold winter
months. Containers of jewel-like preserves were often exchanged as gifts.
Most jam is industrial, but during the summer people macerate fruit in
sugar overnight, then boil it down the next morning. Jam is ubiquitous
on breakfast tables: strawberry, raspberry, apricot, and plum are popular
flavors to spread on bread for a tartine. Preserves have many uses in bak-
ing; abricoter (“to apricot”) means to glaze a cake or tart with a coating
of boiled, strained apricot preserves. The lovely sheen on strawberry
tarts and other pastries in bakery windows is usually due to an apricot
glaze. A gelée (jelly) is a fine-textured, clear preserve from which all berry
seeds or chunks of fruit have been strained off; jellies are also made from
decoctions of lavender or from wine. Rowanberry and elderberry jellies
and gooseberry jam are served with game to temper the headier flavors
of the meat. Sweet-acid currant jelly is a traditional accompaniment to
hot preparations of foie gras. Compote is a simple dessert of fruits stewed
in syrup or wine. It is prepared from fresh or dried fruits, or both, such as
apples, quinces, prunes, figs, and raisins.
NUTS
Dried Isère noix (walnuts; the word also refers to nuts in general) are
used in baking and confectionary and in savory cooking to garnish salads
and hot dishes. They pair with poultry and meat, with salads, and with
blue cheeses, and they are served as dessert (instead of fruits) during the
winter months. Sweet amandes (almonds) are in fact pit fruits related to
peaches; in cooking they are often paired with trout. Noisettes (hazelnuts
or filberts) garnish meat concoctions such as pâtés and are added to hard
sausages. Châtaignes (chestnuts) are ground into flour that is used to make
bread and cakes. Whole chestnuts go into stuffing for turkey and combine
with cabbbage to make hearty winter braised dishes. Candied in sugar
syrup, they are called marrons glacés and are used in sweet preparations
such as chestnut cream. Tiny green pistaches (pistachios) are used like
hazelnuts, with meats and in confectionary. Salted and left in their shells,
they accompany an apéritif. Pignons (pine nuts) are lightly toasted in a
pan, then strewn on salads and used as garnishes. Although most nuts are
eaten dried, fresh hazelnuts and almonds appear seasonally in markets.
When fresh, the pithy, still-green shells are carved open with a sharp
knife. Fresh nutmeats are pale white, with a crisp texture, a milky moist-
ness, and a sweet flavor.
SUGAR, HONEY, CHOCOLATE, AND SWEETS

Sucre (sugar) was long a luxury consumed by the affluent and considered
a spice rather than a cooking staple or a food. Today, France leads the
European Union in the production of sugar from sugar beets; worldwide
it is second. As in the United States, sugar is widely used in the food
industry as an additive to fruit juices, preserves, biscuits, pastries, breakfast
cereals, and yogurt.
Despite the prevalence of industrial candies, the tradition of artisanal
confectionary is quite strong in France. Few confectioners today make
the elaborate sugar sculptures that featured on aristocratic tables in the
past. Contemporary bonbons, if more modest, are nonetheless exquisite,
and small, decorative boxes of hand-made candies such as chewy nougats
(made with egg white) or nut pralines (in a crunchy sugar coating) are
often given as gifts. Hard sugar candy is shaped in molds or else blown
like glass from heavy syrup, perhaps into naturalistic forms such as roses
and leaves; working with sugar is an art in itself. Berlingots and bêtises de
Cambrai are both bonbons with a glasslike appearance typical for flavored,
colored, hard sugar candies. The petits-fours or very small cakes known
as calissons d’Aix are made of sweetened melon paste and egg white. The
paste is glossed with hard white sugar icing, then carved into the typical
almond shape.
Sugar is essential to chocolatiers or chocolate makers. Chocolate is
widely consumed in France, although in smaller quantities than in other
European countries. Most chocolate is eaten in the form of the industrial
milk chocolate bars available in every supermarket and grocery store.
In recent years, it has become fashionable for cafés to serve a small square of
chocolate with their coffees, the result of promotional efforts on the part
of chocolate manufacturers. As in the United States, connoisseurs seek
out dark chocolate with a significant cocoa content (at least 50 percent),
viewed as more natural, better tasting, and of higher quality than the
overly sweetened and less saturated mixtures. Artisanal chocolate makers
produce bonbons stuffed with fruits or creams, flavored with liquors or
spices, mixed with nuts. Chocolats come in imaginative shapes, according
to the inspiration of the confectioner; a Lyon specialty is the cocoa-dusted
hérisson or hedgehog, so-called for its spiky appearance. After a festive
meal, a box of elegant chocolates may be passed around the table as a last
morsel to follow coffee.
Miel (honey) has been a familiar if not widely used sweetener since
Celtic and Roman times. During the late Middle Ages, fermented honey
drinks were made in Lorraine, Metz, and the Vosges, and bees were also
important as a source of wax to make the votive candles lit in churches. At
breakfast honey is eaten like jam—spread on buttered bread or spooned
over plain yogurt for flavor and sweetness. Honey from meadow flowers
and crop fields is the most common. Lavender honey, orange flower honey,
pine honey, and thyme honey are harvested in the South and have deli-
cate, distinctive flavors. Honey gives pain d’épices (spice cake) from Dijon
its characteristic flavor and dark color, and it is a traditional ingredient in
ginger cakes. Apiculture or the cultivation of bees for honey is a common
hobby that recalls the rural agricultural life of the recent past. Residents
of rural areas and also many suburban dwellers keep a hive in the garden
and collect their own honey.
PASTRIES AND DESSERTS

One of the many seductions of France is the large range of imaginative
desserts and pâtisseries (pastries). These range from simple, homemade
preparations, to complex confections made only by pâtissiers, the pastry
professionals. Viennoiseries or fine pastries such as chaussons de pomme
or baked apple turnovers, brioche, raisin-filled spirals, and flaky, buttery
croissants are eaten at breakfast along with a bowl of coffee or hot
chocolate. Pains au chocolat, which are croissants filled with chocolate,
are a favorite with children. For a special occasion such as a weekend
dinner or a birthday celebration, home cooks craft a simple chocolate or
pound cake, a basic layer cake with fruits, desserts such as oeufs à la neige
or île flottante (eggs in snow or floating island: egg whites poached in milk
and served on crème anglaise or thin custard, the whole garnished with
caramel), mousse au chocolat (chocolate mousse), sabayon (zabaglione, a

frothy egg cream whisked over a double boiler and flavored with sweet
wine such as Muscat), or a fruit tart. For an elaborate dinner, a cake or tart
will be bought from a pâtissier. Professionally made tarts lined with pastry
cream or almond cream and topped with fruits are perennial favorites, but
far more elaborate classic confections are widely available in the pastry
shops. Small puff pastry balls filled with cream, arranged in a circle, and
garnished with flavored whipped cream or custard sauce make a Saint-
Honoré. A Paris-Brest, recognizable from the powdered sugar and almonds
that decorate the top, layers puff pastry with almond and hazelnut cream.
The family of frothy cakes that includes the Roussillon and the Framboisine
are made from layers of gelées, thinly sliced fruit, and nut creams on a light
sponge cake, which soaks up the flavors and colors of the spreads. These
cakes are finished with a fruit glaze or jelly to give the outside a transpar-
ently colorful liquid sheen. To make an Opéra, invented in 1954 in Paris
in honor of the Palais Garnier opera house, a thin biscuit is soaked in
coffee syrup; butter cream and chocolate cream are spread on alternate
layers, and the whole is iced with chocolate.
ICE CREAM AND SORBET

Ices and ice creams can be traced to ancient China and were eaten
at the court of Alexander the Great and by the Emperor Nero during
the first century. During the seventeenth century, ices made their way to
France via Italy. French glace (“ice,” i.e., ice cream) differs from American
ice cream, being closer to an Italian gelato. It contains little cream, is not
terribly sweet, and is slightly granular in texture. Vanilla and chocolate
are favorite flavors, and raspberry, strawberry, hazelnut, and pistachio are
common; mango and passion fruit, which is sweet-sour, are summer fla-
vors. In the South, flavors are based on local fruits, herbs, or produce,
such as lavender, rosemary, and honey. During the summer, people buy
cones at street stands and ice cream shops, and restaurants feature coupes
de glace and bombes on the menu for dessert. A coupe is an oversized con-
coction garnished with fruits, fruit purée as sauce, nuts, and a crisp cookie.
Served in a large, bowl-shaped glass coupe (goblet), it is usually meant to
be shared by two people. A bombe is ice cream molded into a round shape,
then similarly garnished with sauces and fruits. Sorbets and granités or true
ices made without any cream, milk, or eggs are appreciated as light, cool-
ing, and refreshing desserts. In formal settings, a tiny quantity of sorbet is
served between courses of a meal, to refresh the palate.
HERBS AND FLOWERS USED AS SWEET FLAVORINGS

Some herb, spice, and flower flavors are primarily associated with sweet
dishes. Vanille (vanilla) is a staple of bakers, violette (violet) flavors candy
and black tea, and whole violet flowers candied in sugar garnish cakes
and pastries. The use of eau de fleur d’oranger (orange flower water) and
eau de rose (rose water) in pastry-making in the South reflects a Middle
Eastern influence that came via Spain with the Moors. Until the mid-
twentieth century, the perfume industry centered in Grasse also supplied
cooks; today, most blossoms used in perfumes and flavorings are imported
from India and Asia. Orange flower is the distinctive flavor in the sweet
version of the yeasted pastries called fougaces. Mint is used primarily for
tisane and as a flavor for syrups drunk over ice. Green sweet-sour angelica
stems, taken in the past as medicine, are candied by repeated dipping into
sugar syrup and then carved into attractive shapes.
COFFEE, TEA, TISANES, AND HOT CHOCOLATE

Nearly everybody drinks café (coffee). France is the third largest pur-
chaser of coffee beans in the world, after the United States and Germany.
Café au lait, hot milk with strong coffee, is drunk at breakfast. Through-
out the day and after lunch and dinner, people drink small cups of black
coffee, similar to Italian espresso, in demitasse cups. This is simply called
un café (a coffee) or a petit noir. Dark roasted Robusta or Arabica beans
are used, and the coffee is brewed with relatively little water. The result
is a strong, rich-tasting beverage. Coffee drunk at mid-morning or in
the late afternoon is a pick-me-up; sipped after the varied flavors of a
meal, coffee refreshes the palette. Chocolat or hot chocolate is a popular
beverage among children. It is drunk at breakfast from the same kind of
bowls that adults use for café au lait. Children may also be given bowls of
chicorée (chicory), which used to be drunk as an inexpensive, domesti-
cally produced substitute for coffee. Chicory is a green related to endive;
its roasted, ground roots are sold in powders or granules that resemble
instant coffee and may be dissolved in hot milk, less frequently hot water.
Chicory is naturally nutty and sweet in flavor and lacks the bitterness and
caffeine of coffee.
In the past, brewed black and green teas were associated with elegant,
light afternoon refreshment. In recent years, tea has gained popularity as
a breakfast drink. This is due in part to health concerns. A cup of tea con-
tains far less caffeine than a cup of coffee, and tea may offer other health
benefits, as well; connoisseurs appreciate the delicate variety of flavors.
A tisane or infusion is a made from a dried flower or herb such as verveine

(verbena), guimauve (mallow), or menthe (mint) steeped in hot water.
Infusions are taken before bed or as an after-dinner hot drink instead of
coffee. They are given to the sick, and the various decoctions are appreci-
ated for their medicinal properties.
WATER
Spring waters are heavily marketed, giving the false impression (shared
by many of the French) that tap water is never drunk. In fact, tap water is
the most commonly drunk liquid in France10 and may safely be consumed
throughout the country. Some small towns, particularly in the South, still
have public fountains that antedate the installation in homes of filtered
running water.11 General preference runs to drinking water that is cool
or room temperature, not cold or iced. During meals, a pitcher or carafe
of tap water or a bottle of spring water is placed on the table, so that
glasses may conveniently be refilled. Liter-sized bottles of water are avail-
able at grocery stores and corner stores. Still waters from springs at Evian,
Contrex, Volvic, and Vatel are popular. The flavors of spring waters vary
according to their mineral content (or the lack thereof) indicated on the
bottle label. Waters with high mineral contents are appreciated for their
healthful properties, such as calcium for bone health. Fluorine, potassium,
and sodium are other common mineral elements in spring waters. Natural
or added carbonation is responsible for the bubbles in sparkling mineral
waters, such as Badoit and Perrier.
SODA AND SYRUPS

Soda is everywhere available, although it is not consumed on the same
scale as in the United States. Coke, Fanta, and other imported beverages
are easy to find, along with a few French sodas. The most distinctive is
Orangina, easily spotted in its squat, orange-shaped bottle.
More typical than soda are sirops (syrups). A small quantity of thick,
sweet, heavily concentrated syrup with a distinctive fruit or herbal flavor
is mixed with water to make a refreshing drink. Beloved by children and
popular with people of all ages during the summer, une menthe à l’eau—
green mint syrup and water—is cooling in hot weather. Orgeat is barley
syrup, although sometimes it is based on almonds, despite its name. Grena-
dine (pomegranate) and cassis (black currant) are well-loved flavors. Sodas
and syrups are not drunk with meals, but as a refreshing beverage for the
late afternoon, and they are often ordered in cafés.
BEER AND CIDER

Cervoise (ale) antedates wine in France and can be traced back to the
Gauls. Ale is malt, or toasted, germinated barley that has been fermented
with yeast and water. By the end of the eighth century, people had begun
to add medicinal hop blossoms to ale, making true bière (beer). The hops
give the characteristic bitter flavor and act as a natural preservative. For
centuries, beer was an important source of food calories for northern
Europeans. Today, a handful of industrial breweries in Alsace, such as
Kronenbourg and Météor, produce most of the French beers, and beer
consumption is heaviest in this region and along the Belgian border. In
cooking, beer is an ingredient in the beef stew carbonade and in some fish
stews. A panaché is a summer drink made of beer mixed with lemonade.
For a bubbly red Monaco, a shot of grenadine syrup is added.
Cidre (cider) in France is what Americans call hard cider, the bubbly
fermented apple juice that is mildly alcoholic (4.5 percent alcohol by
volume). Since the sixteenth century, when new varieties of apples and
cultivation techniques were brought from Spain, apples and cider have
been typical of Normandy, Brittany, and the Maine. Cider is consumed
on a much smaller scale than wine or beer. Most is drunk near where
it is made, in the countryside of the Northwest; there it rivals wine in
importance.
BRANDIES AND LIQUEURS

Eaux-de-vie (fortified alcohols or distilled liqueurs) are drunk as apéritifs
and digestifs (before- and after-dinner drinks) and have many uses in cook-
ing. They flavor sauces, stewed dishes, and desserts and are f lambéed for a
dramatic presentation. Liqueurs have been manufactured in France since
the distilling process was brought back from the Middle East during the
Crusades. Most distilled liqueurs were originally concocted as medicines.
By far the most popular liqueur is anise-flavored pastis. Pastis, Pernod
and other anise liqueurs became popular in the nineteenth century, when
they were marketed as a substitute for absinthe (absinthe), also flavored
with anise and fennel. La fée verte (the green fairy) was so called for the
milky green color it assumes when mixed with water, not to mention for
its magical transformative powers. Absinthe is quite bitter and has to
be sweetened with a cube of sugar. The problem was that it contained
wormwood (Artemesia absinthium), an ancient tonic that is also poten-
tially toxic. Excessive consumption and bad quality mixtures produced
unfortunate effects, and the government banned the sale of absinthe
in 1915. Conveniently, pastis and other anise mixtures were available.

Unlike its lethal ancestor, pastis is regarded as having a beneficial effect on
health, notably by soothing the stomach and intestines. It is drunk mixed
with chilled water. A clear light brown by itself, pastis turns a light milky
yellow when mixed with water. Pastis-and-water is the basis for a handful
of simple, popular cocktails. Mixed with mint syrup, the green drink that
results is a perroquet (parrot). Adding grenadine makes a pink-red tomate
or “tomato.” The addition of barley syrup gives a Mauresque or Morisco.
In the Midi, l’heure du pastis—time for a sociable pastis—is practically any
hour of the day: before lunch, in the late afternoon, before dinner.
Most liquors draw their distinctive flavor from an herb, root, or fruit.
The bitter flavor of Suze, originally from French-speaking Switzerland,
comes from gentian roots that have soaked in eau-de-vie. Suze is drunk
over ice and mixed with sparkling water from a tall, narrow, straight-sided
glass. Gin is based on rye, barley, and oats, but owes its flavor to a strong
infusion of juniper berries. Vermouth is based on grapes, but flavored with
herbs and spices; un Martini in France is a before-dinner glass of herb-
flavored vermouth, not the American mixed drink. Among after-dinner
drinks, classic Cognac is the most famous grape brandy. Calvados or apple
brandy is beloved in the apple-growing regions of Normandy. A shot of
Calvados is sometimes drunk between courses during a meal, to promote
digestion and help eaters make their way through a particularly rich
repast. The theory goes that the small glass of apple brandy, known in this
circumstance as a trou normand, opens up a “hole” (trou) so that you can
eat more. Most of the herbal liqueurs have monastic origins, as the monks
concocted them for use as medicines. Bright yellow or green Chartreuse
was developed by a Carthusian sect, for instance. Orange-flavored
Cointreau and Grand-Marnier were invented in the mid–nineteenth
century, however, by commercial distillers. In the countryside, where
gardens with fruit trees are common, people still concoct their own bran-
dies by soaking fruits such as pears or plums in a neutrally flavored alcohol;
it is a mark of respect and a gesture of friendship to offer a guest a glass of
house-made brandy.
NOTES
1. “L’Âme du vin,” “Le vin des chiffoniers,” “Le vin de l’assassin,” “Le vin
du solitaire,” and “Le vin des amants,” Les Fleurs du mal (1857), in Charles
Baudelaire, Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1980), 76–81.
2. Grimod de la Reynière, Le Manuel des Amphitryons (Paris: Cappelle et
Renand, 1808), 14.
3. Silvano Serventi, Le Livre du foie gras (Paris: Flammarion, 2002), 16.

4. Charles Estienne, L’agriculture et la maison rustique, French translation by
Jean Liébault (Paris: Chez Jaques Du-Puys, 1570).
5. Michel Maincent, Technologie culinaire, preface by Pierre Troisgros (Paris:
BPI, 1999), 281.
6. Edward H. Schafer, “T’ang,” in Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological
and Historical Perspectives, editor K. C. Chang (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1977), 131.
7. Jean-Louis Flandrin, “Et le beurre conquit la France,” L’Histoire 85 (1986):
109, 111.
8. “L’huile d’olive, un ‘or jaune,’” Le Monde (May 24, 2006).
9. Silvano Serventi and Françoise Sabban, Pasta, trans. Antony Shugaar
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), xiv, 47, 179.
10. Gilbert Garrier, Histoire sociale et culturelle du vin (Paris: Larousse-Bordas,
1995; 1998).
11. Didier Nourrisson, Le Buveur du XIXe siècle (Paris: Albin Michel, 1990),
18.
3
Cooking
Elements that shape cooking practices include available ingredients, kitchen

technologies, and of course the cook. The transition from a largely agricul-
tural way of life to a fully modern urban and suburban one was completed in
the last century. From the kitchen garden, home cooks have moved into the
small shop and the supermarket, not to mention the oversized hypermarché.
Efficient stoves and the taste for lighter foods, as well as time pressure and
busy schedules have contributed to the rise of fast-cooked foods as rivals to
old-style, economical plats mijotés (slow-cooked dishes). The roles of pro-
fessional cooks are diverse. In elite restaurants, executive chefs are astute
managers as well as gastronomic high priests and food designers. In fast-food
eateries, cooking has become an assembly process where employees carry
out simplified, highly rationalized preparations.
SUPERMARKETS
As in other urban consumer societies, the French acquire nearly all
provisions in stores, and most food shopping is done at commercial
chain supermarchés (supermarkets), defined as having 1,000 to 2,500
square meters (about 1,308 to 3,270 square yards) of selling space.
This is a recent innovation. At the end of the Second World War,
most food shops were specialized and expensive. Price-fixing was com-
mon, as conservative shopkeepers sought to shield themselves from
competition; before the war, they had fought tooth and nail to curb
the growth of cooperative magasins à succursales (chain stores).1 In

this atmosphere, a store that stocked a wide variety of competitively
priced comestibles was revolutionary if not actually heretical. It was in
these circumstances that the first of the modern domestic commercial
chains got its start. In 1949, fresh from a decade of schooling in Jesuit
seminaries, the young Édouard Leclerc began buying large quantities
of groceries directly from factories and producers, then reselling them
at a full 25 percent below the shop prices. This practice made a hit
among his neighbors in Landerneau (Brittany) as they shopped for din-
ner. His outraged colleagues, the small shopkeepers, turned belligerent.
Leclerc had to write to the federal government to defend himself, and
the Ministère des Finances (Ministry of Finance) took the opportunity
to affirm the illegality of price-fixing. As Leclerc grew his first store and
then opened other outlets, he had to do battle with urban department
stores such as Monoprix and Prisunic, whose discounts hardly differed
from small shop prices. By the 1960s, self-service supermarkets had be-
come prevalent and Leclerc’s practices the norm.2 As in the United
States, supermarchés stock perishables as well as items designed for long
storage such as dried pasta, canned goods, and milk or juice in sealed
tretrapacks or bricks that can be stored at room temperature until they
are opened. The fancier stores have specialty counters such as for fresh
fish, bread, and wine.
Today, some associate the large chains, like fast-food restaurants, with
an impersonal, sterile or Americanized way of life. In most towns where an
Auchan or other big store opens, small shops close. Nonetheless, ever on
the lookout for bargains and a favorable rapport qualité-prix (quality-price
ratio), the French more than any other European population frequent not
just supermarchés but also hypermarchés or grande surfaces (superstores), de-
fined as having selling space greater than 2,500 square meters (about 3,270
square yards), and discounters (discount stores). In the interest of maintain-
ing commercial diversity and protecting the small shops, legal limits have
been imposed, however, such as the ban on building an hypermarché within
city limits in Paris.
A recent trend for commercial supermarkets and the food industry
is to marry the appeal of fresh items with the convenience of food that
is prepared, packaged, and ready to eat. Fresh potatoes that are peeled,
cooked, then sealed in plastic can be added directly to a dinner dish as it
heats up. Sealed containers of fresh fruit salad kept under refrigeration are
meant to be sold and eaten within a few days. A chain of supermarkets
that is unique to France sells only surgelés (frozen foods). In addition to
packages of flash-frozen vegetables or fruits and containers of ice creams
Cooking 83
and sorbets, these stores sell items such as appetizers that can be quickly
prepared by heating in the oven and tart shells to be filled with fruits for
dessert or with a savory filling to make a hot lunch.
SPECIALTY SHOPS
Small specialty stores such as the fromagerie (cheese shop), charcuterie
(shop for cured meats, especially hams, sausages, and other pork products),
boulangerie (bread shop), and pâtisserie (pastry shop) recall older shopping
traditions. In city neighborhoods, rows of different kinds of food shops
cluster together. In villages and small towns, the shops are usually located
in the town center. As relatively few households had ovens until the mid-
twentieth century, the boulangerie has long been an institution even in
villages, bread being practically a synonym for life itself. The specialty shops
recall that through the eighteenth century, royal statutes and guilds or cor-
porations structured the manufacturing and retail sectors of the economy.
Guild rules limited what a merchant could sell, but also gave the merchant
an effective monopoly in that particular line of business. The old rules are
Sausages, hams, terrines, and pâtés at the boucher-charcutier Lavigne in

Montceau-les-Mines. Courtesy of Janine Depoil.
no longer in place, but boutiques cultivate the aura as well as the practice
of specialization, a strategy opposite that of the generalist supermarket.
For the shopper filling a basket with provisions, the small shops
now offer access to products perceived as high quality and of reliable
provenance. Most small shops are not self-service. Food items are
displayed behind glass or on shelves behind a counter. Interaction be-
tween the customer and the shopkeeper is required for the purchase
to be transacted. Shopkeepers slice ham to order, recommend cheeses
to be eaten the same day or two days later, and bag produce, although
fruits and vegetables are displayed in open bins. It is considered rude
to walk in to a small specialty food store simply to look around. Those
who regularly frequent such stores often refer not to the shop itself, but
to the person who runs it. One may make a trip chez mon poissonnier
(“to my fish seller’s”), who, it is understood, may be relied on for his
expert knowledge in the matter of fish. Similarly, one refers to the good
vegetables chez mon marchand de légumes (“at my grocer’s”), or praise
a bottle discovered through mon caviste (“my wine seller”). In affluent
areas, specialty shops run by traiteurs or caterers, as well as upscale su-
permarkets, sell prepared dishes that are ready to eat. At this end of
the economic spectrum, connoisseurs with the means for leisure spend-
ing further extend their shopping circuits to venues formerly frequented
largely by food professionals. Private attendance at annual or seasonal
food and wine expositions and trade shows increases yearly.3 The picture
is quite different for less affluent areas, especially outside of the densely
populated cities and in small towns. Here specialty shops struggle to
survive or have disappeared entirely, replaced by supermarkets that sell
products more cheaply.
STORE AND SHOP HOURS

Until as recently as the 1980s, shop hours followed those of the
business day. By earlier norms, in the bourgeois classes the woman of
the house remained at home and could shop and cook, or supervise
the shopping and cooking, during the day. As middle- and upper-class
women entered the workforce and the professions in larger numbers,
this schedule became inconvenient and impractical. Now most super-
markets and small shops keep evening hours, remaining open until
7 or 8 P.M. Supérettes (convenience stores with selling space measur-
ing 120 to 400 square meters, or about 157 to 523 square yards) and
corner stores may remain open later still, until 11 P.M. or midnight.
Pharmacies alternate night shifts against medical emergencies, but
Cooking 85
other stores do not stay open round the clock. Food shopping is part of
the business of the day.
MARKETS
The daily, weekly, or weekend outdoor marchés (markets) in cities and
towns can be traced through medieval trade and monastic fairs and to the
marketplaces established in Gaul by the Romans. During the late nine-
teenth century, the novelist Émile Zola “scientifically” described the sprawl-
ing Parisian market located for centuries at Les Halles. In Le Ventre de Paris
(The Belly of Paris, 1873), the market is the rapacious gullet and grumbling
gut of the city, swallowing up the lives of the individuals whose work there
keeps the rest of the capital alive. Zola documents in fascinating detail the
nocturnal march that country dwellers made to arrive in the city by early
morning, driving cattle before them or carrying heavy baskets of provisions
to sell; rivalries among merchants who compete for customers; the fresh
perfume from the flower stands; the rank stench that pervaded the fish and
the meat sections by the day’s end in summer—the first modern refrigera-
tion technology was still in its infancy and it was not yet widely available.
In the 1960s, the market relocated to Rungis, south of Paris, to expand
while easing urban traffic congestion. Today, Rungis is a wholesale market
open to professionals and retailers such as restaurant chefs and grocers. An
ultra-modern supply chain provisions the market. Truckloads of domestic
produce arrive every morning, and imports are flown in daily from Israel,
Turkey, Benin, Morocco, China, and other locations.
The heart and soul of food shopping dwell in the smaller retail markets.
Ironically, in some instances, the produce, meats, and cheeses for sale at
outdoor markets are identical to those in the supermarkets.4 Yet the notion
that markets offer the best local items directly from a farmer or producer is
not always wrong. At a good market, a special rich odor hangs in the air.
Fruits are at the peak of ripeness. Meats have been hung to develop their
flavor and tenderness. Cheeses have been fully aged under proper condi-
tions of temperature and humidity. La cuisine du marché (market cooking)
implies taking inspiration from seasonal ingredients. French cooking in
general and la cuisine du marché in particular seek to bring out or improve
the inherent features of good ingredients. Beyond access to fresh foods,
outdoor marketing offers possibilities for socializing and a picturesque ex-
perience. The stroll through the outdoor market is an end in itself, and
the market is a place to see and be seen. As much as the opportunity to
buy edibles and ingredients, it is these elements of market culture that
draw crowds.
COOKING AT HOME
Cooking at home, like housework and childcare, was long the prov-
ince of women. The education of women including higher education, the
entry of women into the professions, and contemporary notions of gen-
der equality have brought men, as well, into the home kitchen as cooks
and nurturers for their families and households. Particularly in younger
couples, the tasks—or pleasures—of cooking and food shopping are likely
to be shared; however, nostalgia centered around food and cuisine de
ménage or cuisine familiale (home cooking) tends to have an association
with women. When people reminisce, they recall “my mother’s” version
of a dish as the very best. The phrase la cuisine grand-mère (grandmoth-
er’s cooking) describes dishes that are thought to be old-fashioned and
soul-satisfying, familiar, and comforting, such as the simple home dessert
compote de pommes.
Stewed Apples (Compote de pommes)

• 6 large apples, preferably a firm cooking variety such as Granny Smith
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups water, apple cider, hard apple cider, or white wine
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 2-inch piece of a vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2-inch cinnamon sticks
• 2 whole cloves
• nutmeg
Mix the lemon juice and 1/2 cup water in a bowl. Peel, core, and quarter
the apples, dipping each section briefly into the lemon mixture to pre-
vent discoloring.
In a saucepan, combine 2 cups water (or cider or wine), sugar, salt, vanilla
bean (if using), cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Bring the syrup to the boil,
then reduce the heat and simmer slowly for 10 minutes. Add the apples,
cover the pot, and gently simmer for about 5 minutes, until the apples are
cooked but still intact. You may need to baste and turn the apples once or
twice to make sure they are coated with syrup.
Take the pot off the heat. If no vanilla bean was used, add vanilla extract.
Allow the apples to cool in their syrup.
Grate a dash of nutmeg over each serving. If desired, serve the apples with
cream or a scoop of ice cream.
Cooking 87
Regardless of professional accomplishments that women realize outside

the home, participation in the family meal still often relies on the perfor-
mance of roles that remain defined by gender. In addition to preparing
meals, female family members are likely to stack up used plates and carry
them away from the table, bring in fresh plates for the next course, and
carry in food from the kitchen. Men uncork wine bottles, refill water and
wine glasses, and carve roasts.
Until quite recently, recipes were transmitted within families primar-
ily as cooking techniques. A written recipe often consisted of only a few
words jotted on a scrap of paper or in a family book as an aide-mémoire
(prod to the memory). A family’s entire kitchen library consisted of one
or two basic printed cookbooks, used primarily as references for propor-
tions or methods. The continuity and sense of tradition that marked these
practices corresponded to repetition, coming from the kitchen. Today,
despite the prevalence of eating out, cooking remains a central feature
of home life. Basic kitchen equipment and a dining table with chairs are
among the very first items that a young person or couple setting up house
will buy. Home cooking today, however, is more varied and experimental.
The repetitions imposed by time, tradition, budget, personal taste, and
technical competence are balanced by any number of outside influences,
from televised cooking shows to the wide variety of domestic and imported
foods in stores.
FAST COOKING AND SHORTCUTS

In home kitchens, the economical, slow-simmered soups or stews of
past centuries have largely been replaced by quick dishes. Cooking
technology, affluence, and time pressures factor into this trend. Searing
or sautéing, baking for items that do not require long exposure to heat,
steaming (for vegetables), and pressure cooking are the preferred meth-
ods. Supermarkets sell items suited to the fast cooking methods, such as
fish in fillets, meats in fillets and chops, and produce that can be eaten
raw in salads. Ready-made, prepared, and semi-prepared elements further
facilitate the task of cooking and serving meals at home. Bread is almost
never made at home, although it is a part of nearly every meal. Breakfast
pastries such as brioche and croissant are purchased from the boulanger or
pâtissier. For a holiday or birthday celebration, a cake may be bought from
a pâtissier. Other staples of the kitchen and table purchased ready-made
include jams, yogurt, cheese, charcuterie, and the mustard that is ubiqui-
tous in vinaigrette dressing for salads and as a condiment for meats. Home
cooks take advantage of fresh preparations from specialty shops, such as
a butcher’s mixture of fresh, loose raw sausage meat or ground pork with
spices or herbs. At home, one simply spoons the flavored meat into hol-
lowed-out tomatoes or zucchini, then gives the stuffed vegetables a quick
turn on the stove in an inch of liquid or pops them into the oven. Minimal
fuss yields a fresh, home-cooked main dish. Similarly, simple preparation
but lively flavor describe this typical recipe for baked fish with a tomato
sauce, an easy plat (main course) for a summer lunch or dinner.
Baked Cod with Tomatoes (Cabillaud à la portugaise)

• 2 pounds fresh cod fillets
• salt
• pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 4 medium tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 6 sprigs parsley, chopped

Coat the fish thoroughly with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, then sprinkle
on both sides with salt and pepper, and lay out flat in a baking dish.
Drop the tomatoes in boiling water for 20 seconds to facilitate peeling,
then peel, seed, and dice them.
Stir the onion, tomato, garlic, and remaining olive oil together in a sauce-
pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onion and tomato
soften and the sauce thickens. Pour in the wine, add the sugar, then
taste and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the tomato sauce over the fish. Bake 25 minutes. Before serving, sprin-
kle the whole fish or each serving with chopped parsley.
TOOLS IN THE HOME KITCHEN

The efficient, rationalized kitchen that is typical became so only dur-
ing the last half-century. As in any western kitchen, the central features
are running water, which became standard in France in the 1950s, and a
modern stove. The stove has evolved in a particularly dramatic fashion.
In rustic dwellings having no separate room for cooking, one cooked over
a brazier or else in pots suspended above an open fire that vented through
Cooking 89
the roof. Situating the fire on a hearth against an exterior wall and venting
through a chimney imposed a sense of containment. By the seventeenth
century, fires in chimneys in the great houses conveniently supported spit
roasting, and brick- or tile-covered fourneaux (“furnaces”) slow simmering
and stewing in pots on the stovetop. By the end of the eighteenth century,
cast iron and other metal stoves became available. In addition to the top
range, metal stoves came to include multiple ovens with individual access
doors. This modification facilitated baking and the simultaneous prepa-
ration of multiple dishes. The 1850s saw the invention of the gas stove,
which became widely available in the 1930s. The gas stove avoided the
burden of stocking wood or charcoal, allowed easy control over the cook-
ing flame, and released fewer particulate pollutants. Electric stoves with
burner disks or coils that come to temperature became common in the
1960s. Today, both gas and variations on the electrical stove—efficient
for slow cooking—are prevalent in home kitchens. The four (oven), often
separate from the stovetop, is usually electric. Recent innovations such
as smooth ceramic stovetops and plaques à induction (magnetic induction
cooktops) that do not retain heat when no cooking is in process double
as countertops. The multipurpose surfaces are appreciated in city apart-
ments, where space comes at a premium. Their engineering and design
reflect contemporary interest in safety, aesthetics, and energy conserva-
tion, as well as in cooking as such. Accomplished amateur cooks prize
restaurant-grade appliances such as oversize gas stoves that throw power-
ful flames.
Today, even a simple or modest kitchen has connections for the full
range of appareils électroménagers (appliances) now considered basic and
essential. A réfrigérateur or frigo (refrigerator) has been standard since
the late 1960s, although wealthy families purchased Frigidaires, made by
General Motors, as early as the late 1920s. Congélateurs (freezers) are
less common; suburban dwellers with spacious houses may have a larger
refrigerator with a substantial freezer section and keep a separate deep
freezer in a basement or garage. Dishwashers and range vents above
the stove are prevalent. Fours à micro-ondes (microwaves), an offshoot
of radar technology developed in the United States during the Second
World War, have been popular since the 1970s. Beyond the major ap-
pliances, common gadgets in home kitchens include coffee makers, food
processors, beaters, hand-held plunge mixeurs (blenders) that convert
vegetables into soup, and, recently, self-contained electrical steamers for
vegetables.
Ustensiles or petits outils (utensils), la batterie de cuisine (pots and pans),
and la vaisselle (dishes) complete the equipment in the home kitchen.
Despite the capacities of electrical food processors, a variety of couteaux

(knives), a couteau économe (peeler), and surfaces for chopping, cutting,
and paring are essentials. Many people use the mandoline, a firmly an-
chored, angled surface holding multiple blades, over which one slides
vegetables, fruits, or cheese that must be scored, julienned, sliced,
or grated. In the South, some cooks insist that the only way to make
good pistou (pesto for stirring into vegetable soup) is by hand using a
mortier et pilon (mortar and pestle). The whirling blades of a food pro-
cessor or blender produce an unattractive mixture that is too uniform
in texture. By contrast, crushing together garlic cloves and salt, basil
leaves and olive oil, gives the desired consistency and subtly blends the
strong perfumes. For centuries wooden and metal spoons have served to
stir, mix, toss, and beat ingredients in mixing bowls or in pots or pans.
Newer utensils made of hard plastic and, recently, silicone supplement
the wooden spoons. With its extraordinary flexibility, durability, heat
resistance, and impermeability to stains and odors, silicone is becoming
ubiquitous in the kitchen for flexible kneading and baking surfaces, cake
molds, and trivets, in addition to utensils. A fouet (whisk), spatule (spat-
ula), raclette (scraper), passoire (colander), and râpe (grater) complete the
basic kitchen tool kit.
Home cooks use porcelain and stoneware dishes to bake gratins, tartes,
and other preparations destined for the oven. Sturdy enameled cast iron
pots for simmering soups and stews over a steady heat and for baking in
the oven are appreciated. These implements are designed to last for de-
cades, although it is often weekend cooks and connoisseurs who take the
time to use them. Poêles and sauteuses (pots and pans) are used for boiling,
poaching, frying, sautéing, braising, and searing. Early experiments with
pressure cooking date to the seventeenth century. However, the marmite
à pression or autocuiseur (pressure cooker) became popular only after the
Second World War, when the Cocotte-Minute was marketed for fast cook-
ing and energy efficiency. The cocotte is still appreciated for these quali-
ties, and it is a feature of many kitchens.
Since the importation of porcelain from China and the efforts of Louis
XIV to promote luxury industries, including commissioning the Sèvres
manufacture, France has been known for elegant china. Equally typi-
cal rustic glazed terra cotta is found in the South; the various regions
are known for their local styles, such as decorative Quimper ware from
Brittany. Sets of plates usually include the typical hemispherical break-
fast bowls for café au lait in addition to flat dinner plates, smaller plates
for amuse-bouches (appetizers), dessert plates, shallow soup plates with a
wide diameter and deep flat rim, and after-dinner coffee cups. In sets of
Cooking 91
silverware or stainless steel flatware, forks are designed to be attractive

from the back, as the tines of the fork face down on a set table.
PROFESSIONAL COOKS
Professional or career chefs, whether chefs de cuisine (executive chefs)
or cuisiniers (line cooks), have with few exceptions been men. Paid cooks
have long toiled in the worst of conditions, winning little recognition and
minimal remuneration for long hours in dangerously hot, smoky kitchens.
The grand cooking that evolved in aristocratic houses and that under-
pins elite cooking in today’s fine restaurants was carried out by individu-
als regarded as little more than servants. Boys and young men learned
the cooking trade through apprenticeship, and one had to work one’s
way up from the very bottom. The lowliest apprentice scoured pots and
washed dishes before being promoted to chopping vegetables, preparing
sauces, and cooking. Few chefs achieved independence or autonomy with
the rise of the restaurant in the eighteenth century. Restaurants and job
opportunities multiplied during the nineteenth century, but most cooks
worked under a maître d’hôtel who managed the establishment or else they
reported to the propriétaire or restaurateur (owner) himself.
Nonetheless, nineteenth-century chefs made significant efforts to im-
prove their working lives. In the 1840s, cooks united to form mutual
aid societies. The first cooking school was established in 1881. By the
century’s end, the new institutions were issuing diplomas for students
finishing their three-year programs, thus professionalizing the work of
cooking. The cooking schools initially struggled, and restaurateurs op-
posed them. For restaurant owners, it was cheaper to exploit the old sys-
tem of apprenticeship than to hire relatively demanding cooking school
graduates. Despite many obstacles, the culinary profession began to come
into its own. Trade and professional journals emerged that were written
by and for the chefs. Cooking exhibitions and competitions that showed
off cooks’ talents multiplied. Today, chefs train both in cooking schools
and through modern apprenticeships. The BEP or Brevet d’études pro-
fessionelles and the CAP or Certificat d’aptitude professionelle for cooking
are the vocational diplomas for two-year programs taken at the end of
high school. They replace the baccalauréat (high school diploma) earned
at the end of (in American terms) thirteenth grade. A BTS or Brevet
de technicien supérieur is a more advanced two- or three-year technical
course, for instance in foodservice, that follows the baccalauréat. Opinion
is divided as to whether a lengthy apprenticeship and a series of stages
(shorter periods of training) under reputable chefs in good restaurants
or a diploma from a respected hotel or culinary school offers the better

entrée to a career.
Inherent difficulties in the profession have not changed much over the
centuries. Being a cook requires long hours of manual labor, with few days
off each year. The media favor a glamorous vision of the elite culinary world.
To work as a chef is punishing, however, and it is difficult to fill jobs for
cooks in casual restaurants and other everyday commercial contexts. One
expert calculates a deficit of cooks in the tens of thousands.5 Cooking and
hotel schools, along with their students and graduates, have a relatively low
status within the Éducation nationale (national education system), which
privileges the liberal professions and professional courses. Because cooking
school curricula are practical, graduates and most chefs are qualified as ser-
vice workers and earn an hourly wage or contract fees. By contrast, profes-
sionals or salariés such as teachers and office workers earn a yearly salary
and benefits.6 A talented baker or other food producer who wins one of the
widely recognized competitions is named Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best
Worker in France) in his category, such as pâtissier or boulanger. The award
is quite prestigious. Winners proudly post it in their shop windows. Yet
despite the respect for craft and appreciation for quality, the term ouvrier
reminds the winner that he is a laborer as well as an artisan. It is significant
that at present, many bistros and restaurants serving traditional, local, or
regional foods are operated by immigrant families, who assume the rigors of
restaurant work as a way to establish themselves within the country. Most
restaurant cooks do not own the establishments in which they work,7 and
most paid cooks do not work in commercial restaurants at all. Rather, the
majority find employment in school, prison, business, and hospital cafete-
rias, in military mess halls, and in retirement homes.8 There is a perception
that the opportunity for creative cooking is limited in these contexts, where
the use of semi-prepared products often moves the food toward an industrial
model. At the same time, relative to typical commercial restaurant work,
such situations bring higher salaries, a more predictable workload, more
reasonable hours, and the use of relatively modern kitchens.
STAR CHEFS
In the last few decades, some chefs have redefined their roles within com-
mercial restaurants and a few achieved spectacular public success. After the
Second World War, a handful of enterprising chefs took the step of buying
their own restaurants gastronomiques (high-end restaurants). In addition to
cooking, they now managed and became principal financial stakeholders.
In 1951, a group of owner-manager chefs formed the Association des Maîtres
Cooking 93
Chef Michel Troisgros (second from left) of the three-star restaurant Troisgros
in Roanne at work with his staff. Courtesy of Christian Verdet/regard public-
unpact.
cuisiniers de France. The Association aimed to promote high-quality restau-

rants and the autonomous chef de cuisine. In 1953, the first televised cook-
ing show brought elegant cuisine and an accomplished, independent chef
as star performer, into homes across the country.
Today, the roles played by a select group of elite chefs extend far beyond
activity in a single restaurant kitchen to affect a much wider market. Since
the 1970s, Michelin-starred chefs such as Joël Robuchon, Michel Troisgros,
Michel Guérard, Alain Senderens, and Paul Bocuse have cultivated ties
with the industrie agroalimentaire (agricultural-alimentary industry). Acting
as a consultant and advisor, the chef assists a company to improve quality
in mass-produced items, such as packaged meals for airlines or for retail in
commercial supermarket chains. To this cuisine sous contrat (cooking on
contract), the chef may also lend the cachet of his name for marketing.
In return, the company underwrites the chef’s restaurant, for the finest
of the fine restaurants are so expensive to run that they are rarely prof-
itable. Companies in the agro-alimentary industry and chefs themselves
further cultivate links to private and government-supported research labo-
ratories such as INRA, the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
(National Institute for Agronomic Research). For chefs, contracts with
agro-alimentary companies may be coercive or beneficial. In either case,

the purview of the star chef extends beyond the restaurant kitchen and
dining room to overlapping spheres of industry, finance, and government.
WOMEN CHEFS
There have been a few notable exceptions to the gender divide in pro-
fessional cooking. Until as recently as the mid-twentieth century, many
middle class and smaller bourgeois households employed a cuisinière (female
cook) who worked under the direct supervision of the mistress of the house.
There is also the small group of remarkable chef-proprietors known since
the end of the eighteenth century as mères (mothers). The history of the
cuisinières has yet to be elaborated beyond anecdote. A few of the mères,
however, became quite well known, in part because of their influence on
successful male chefs. The mères are associated especially with the Lyon
area. Some of their restaurants began as tiny establishments that served
home-style dishes to feed the canuts (silk-workers) who populated the
city. The mères came to prominence starting at the end of the nineteenth
century and, helped by restaurant reviewers and food writers, early in the
twentieth. In contrast with the elaborate preparations and expensive exotic
ingredients used in elite restaurants, their cooking relied essentially on local
Chef Monique Salera cooking in her restaurant La Dame d’Aquitaine in Dijon.

Cooking 95
ingredients and relatively simple methods. Dishes associated with their res-
taurants include roasted chicken, chicken poached with morels or truffles,
omelets, eel stew, savory onion tarts, pike quenelles (poached fine-textured
fish dumplings) with crayfish sauce, tablier de sapeur (tripe that is marinated,
coated with breadcrumbs, fried, then served with fresh chervil sauce), and
cervelle de canuts (“silk-weavers brains”—fresh cheese seasoned with chives,
garlic, horseradish, along with salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar). These
chefs were as often as not simply called La Mère … (Mother So-and-So) by
their clients and, eventually, in the press, rather than by their first and last
names. Several won and many kept for years one or more Michelin stars,
the most widely recognized indicator of quality for a restaurant.
Today, a few talented female chefs in prominent restaurants challenge
the strong masculine association to good restaurant food, not to mention
grande cuisine or haute cuisine. Their success flies in the face of traditions of
food writing, restaurant reviewing, and professional cooking culture that
have been actively hostile to seeing women work in professional kitch-
ens. Gastronomy—the knowledgeable appreciation of food—has tended
to view women, along with food items, as consumables, rather than as
capable connoisseurs. The exclusive Club des Cent (Hundred Club),
founded in 1912 as a private automobile club whose members sought
out restaurants for touring destinations, is to this day open only to men.
Hostility to the entry of women into the world of professional cooks has
long emanated from the ranks of male cooks who feared competition. A
congress of (male) cooks from throughout France and Algeria that met
in Paris in 1893 declared its opposition to the entry of women as appren-
tices in the great restaurant and hotel kitchens. The group did support
teaching women from the popular classes the art of home cooking as part
of a more general enseignement ménager (course in domestic economy).9
In this era a mandate recommended cooking instruction in the public
schools, but this also aimed to train women for their roles as mothers
and nurturers within the family. In the twentieth century, the great chef,
bon-vivant, and early promoter of nouvelle cuisine Paul Bocuse is said to
have scoffed at the capacity of female cooks for refined, innovative, or
grand cuisine.10 Today, cooking school students and apprentices working
in restaurants note the macho culture and inhospitable climate prevalent
in many professional kitchens.11
PROFESSIONAL COOKING
Venues for professional cooking vary from local bistros and cafés
to the grand restaurants gastronomiques; styles of restaurant cooking
range from traditional and regional to the cuisines exotiques (“exotic”

cuisines) borrowed from around the world. The workspace may be a
tiny room that differs little from a home kitchen, a cavernous chamber
appointed with industrial strength appliances and staffed by a numerous
brigade (contingent of kitchen staff) in a large hotel, or something in
between.
Influential transformations occurred in high-end restaurant cooking
during the middle and late twentieth century. The style of cooking that
underpins today’s school curricula and that takes place in fine-dining res-
taurants emerged from the aristocratic traditions of the great houses and
from court cuisine as well as from their continuations by private cooks
in bourgeois houses of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth
centuries. The peak of success for grand cooking came at the turn of
the twentieth century and is best reflected in the Guide culinaire (1903)
of Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier’s volume is a grammar of cuisine classique
(classical cooking). He defines its basic elements and rules for combining
them, codifying, and rationalizing grand cooking into a clear system. A
given cut of meat, for instance, may be cooked in different ways, served
with a variety of sauces, and accompanied by a selection of fillings or
garnishes that lend flavor. Each combination pulled from the matrix is a
specific dish with its own name, yet clearly related to other dishes with
which it may be paired or contrasted to compose a full meal. The menus
available on a daily basis in wealthy houses and in grand restaurants were
for banquets. A proper meal in the grand style consisted of potage or soup,
a hot appetizer or hors-d’oeuvre followed by a relevé that was seasoned to
provide flavor contrast; a variety of entrées or first courses; a roast; a salad;
an entremets (“between dishes,” i.e., between roast and cheese) that often
consisted of foie gras; cheese; an ice (sometimes served as an entremets);
dessert; and coffee. Rules for menu composition imposed balance and va-
riety. Cold and hot dishes must alternate. Repetition must be avoided
from garnish to vegetable to side dish. Fish and meat must not be com-
bined in the same dish: they belonged in separate courses. Sweet, soft
dishes such as a creamy dessert must be accompanied by a dry biscuit
for contrast. Dishes often featured touches such as layers of stuffings and
decorative pastry shells. These elements were assembled before the cook-
ing, and they added interest to the final presentation. Until as late as the
1970s, dishes were served en salle (in the dining room). Staff performed
numerous tasks, in some cases to finish the cooking. The découpage (carv-
ing) was carried out in the dining room, desserts such as crêpes Suzette
were flambéed tableside, and waiters served from full-sized platters that
they carried around the table.
Cooking 97
As chefs asserted their autonomy, transformations traceable to about

mid-century pushed food and service in the direction of contemporary
practice. Ultimately the meal was simplified to today’s standard of three
courses: entrée (first course), plat, and dessert. Unconventional com-
binations appeared. Chefs brought together items formerly separated
into different courses and began to use ingredients formerly excluded
from elegant cooking. Chicken and shrimp brochettes (grilled on skew-
ers) were an innovation, as was green salad topped with slices of foie
gras, magret de canard (breast of duck), or gésier (gizzard) confit. Foie gras
moved from the end of the meal to the start as a first course or entrée.
Chefs rejected as heavy and antiquated the overuse of preparations such
as the roux (flour cooked in butter, to which liquid is added), a thicken-
ing liaison used as a sauce base. They now preferred fruit and vegetable
purées and reductions, and they sought to make food taste as fresh as
possible. As chefs traveled abroad and as immigrants from the former
colonies introduced new foods and ingredients, “exotics” from kiwis
to couscous further inflected French cooking. Beginning in the 1950s,
chefs initiated a kind of control and direct contact with individual din-
ers by plating food in the kitchen. Service was now à l’assiette (by indi-
vidual plate); the grand serving platters disappeared. In 1973, the food
critics and guidebook authors Henri Gault and Christian Millau called
the new style nouvelle cuisine (new cuisine) and became its outspoken
champions. Today, elements of nouvelle cuisine such as the emphasis on
fresh ingredients and clear flavors are part of the culinary lexicon of
nearly every discerning chef.
A fish preparation from the Troisgros

kitchen shows the influence of nouvelle cui-
sine. Courtesy of Christian Verdet/regard
public-unpact.
Post-modern food from the Troisgros kitchen:

pasta with a mushroom, truffle, and cream sauce
deconstructed into its component parts. Cour-
tesy of Christian Verdet/regard public-unpact.
Several distinct trends are at work in contemporary restaurant cooking.

Varieties of cuisine du terroir focus on native ingredients and dishes. These
menus may be authentic, nostalgic, or deliberately conservative. In some
cases, they attach to a political ideology that seeks to resist or attenuate
outside influences and to affirm a local or regional identity. In the 1990s,
a group of chefs published a manifesto protesting the encroachment of
globalizing influences and praising all things native and local. Cuisine de
tradition, a kind of comfort food, offers familiar, even homely dishes to eat-
ers whose nostalgia for home cooking finds no answer in a fast-paced life-
style or perhaps in living alone. Relatively simple establishments serving
well-prepared, everyday fare provide a steady continuo beneath the elabo-
rate melodies of fashion and fad. Outspoken fusion cuisine, characterized
by bold, striking mixtures of foreign and local ingredients and methods,
occupies a relatively small space in France. Within the last five years, a
nouvelle vague (new wave) of young cooks with outstanding credentials
from apprenticeships in top kitchens has moved beyond the domain of
Michelin-starred restaurants, with their old hierarchies and structures, as
a matter of principle. Instead, the proponents of la jeune cuisine (young
cuisine) take a personal, quirky approach to highly refined cooking that
is also creative, even ludic. For convenience, economy, or to compensate
for insufficient staff, casual restaurant kitchens exploit industrial innova-
tions: pre-prepared vegetables, dehydrated fonds de sauce (sauce bases),
precooked items. Chefs in a variety of contexts adopt new materials and
industrial techniques, such as cooking sous vide (“in a vacuum”). A piece
of food enclosed in a sealed bag or container is cooked at a relatively low
Cooking 99
temperature, with little added liquid, and according to precise timing. In

principle, the results are predictable, standards of quality can be guaran-
teed, and the chef is spared worry.
COOKING AND THE MEDIA

French food has long been known for its special éclat (sparkle and
glamour). Since the seventeenth century it has enjoyed tremendous pres-
tige. Today, the prevalent associations are quality, variety, and coher-
ence, along with conviviality, ritual, and shared enjoyment. Through the
eighteenth century, fashion in food emanated from grand houses and the
royal court. Since the early nineteenth century, the reputation and promi-
nence of French cuisine within the country and beyond is due not only to
the excellence and variety of the food but also to the elaboration of dis-
courses about that food.12 To be sure, paeans to the pleasures of the table
are ancient. Since antiquity, histories, agricultural and medical treatises,
and poems have treated aspects of food culture as a primary subject or
ancillary topic, leitmotif, or obsessive theme. More recently, such works
as domestic tracts and novels have done the same. The first decade of the
nineteenth century, however, saw important innovations in food writing,
notably the first modern-style narrative food guide and food periodical. As
political and social structures evolved (highlighted by the Revolution of
1789), restaurants multiplied, and a new food publishing industry gained
impressive momentum. Contained within the yearly publication entitled the
Almanach des Gourmands (Gourmands’ Almanac, 1803–1812), the first nar-
rative food guide judged Parisian restaurants for quality, as well as giving
their addresses. The guide author, Grimod de la Reynière, reported on res-
taurants and food items ostensibly as he experienced them. His judgments
also affected the subsequent activities of chefs and caterers concerned to
receive favorable reviews. Here, the activities of producers (cooks, food
sellers) and consumers (eaters, readers, writers) exerted a mutual influ-
ence. Each reinforced the importance, legitimacy, and stakes for the other.
Durable print extended the life and reach of ephemeral edibles.
Over two centuries, the players in the various culinary and gastronomic
spheres have multiplied, and the scope of their activities has increased. As
in the United States, chefs and food producers interact intensively with
writers, publicists, and consumers. This back-and-forth democratizes food
cultures and also serves to legislate and regulate standards of taste and
quality. Geography or budget may prevent one from visiting an outstand-
ing restaurant in a neighboring province. But other pleasure, interest,
and knowledge derive from reading a newspaper review of the restaurant,
watching a televised interview with the chef, purchasing the chef ’s cook-
book, and perhaps making some of his recipes at home.
As in the United States, the media extension of food in France is
now vast. It includes food shows on television, food-related Web sites
and databases, and periodicals devoted to food and cooking. An ever-
larger number of cookbooks are available in bookstores. There is a marked
increase in the recent publication of cookbooks for “exotic” cuisines (of
Thailand, Morocco, or Japan) or focusing on clearly foreign foodstuffs
(from Anglo muffins or scones to Chinese wok dishes). The mediatization
of cuisine encourages participation, teaching viewers and readers how to
cook and about food, and stimulates the imagination, providing a space
for fantasy in which the dining table is a vanishing point in the far dis-
tance. The phenomenon indexes the social prestige of food connoisseur-
ship in an affluent society.
The interactions of food producers and consumers further shape and
regulate—prescribe and proscribe—standards of quality and concepts of
good taste. From day to day, it is the home cooks and restaurant chefs who
serve up continuity and creativity on the plate. Yet the response of writers
and critics influences cooks, too. A newspaper column influences home
cooks seeking ideas for dinner. A strong review sends customers flocking
in droves to a restaurant. A critical piece banishes the chef to culinary
and economic purgatory. The power of critics is so strong that a few chefs
at the most elevated end of the cooking spectrum have rebelled. Some
have stated their lack of interest in the distinction of a Michelin star and
chosen to prepare food that expresses a personal preference or philosophy.
They refuse, in other words, to conform. These chefs have taken them-
selves out of the running for prestigious honors, in order to cook by their
own lights. They ignore as interference the mediating roles of critic and
reporter to please themselves and their clients directly.
NOTES
1. Gilles Normand, Histoire des maisons à succursales en France (Paris: Union
des entreprises modernes, 1936).
2. John Ardagh, France in the 1980s (New York: Penguin, 1983; 1982),
396–405.
3. Marion Demossier, “Consuming Wine in France: The ‘Wandering’ Drinker
and the Vin-anomie,” in Drinking Cultures: Alcohol and Identity, editor Thomas M.
Wilson (Oxford: Berg, 2005), 139.
4. Michèle de la Pradelle, Market Day in Provence, trans. Amy Jacobs
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Cooking 101
5. Alain Drouard, Histoire des cuisiniers en France XIXe-XXe siècle (Paris:

CNRS, 2004), 133.
6. Drouard, 131 and passim in Julia Csergo and Christophe Marion, eds.,
Histoire de l’alimentation: Quels enjeux pour la formation? (Dijon: Educagri, 2004).
7. Drouard, 20.
8. Sylvie-Anne Mériot, Nostalgic Cooks: Another French Paradox, trans.
Trevor Cox and Chanelle Paul (Boston: Brill, 2006).
9. Drouard, 54.
10. La Reynière [Robert Courtine], “Ces dames au ‘piano,’” Le Monde (May
21, 1977).
11. Patrick Rambourg, “Guerre des sexes au fourneau!,” L’Histoire 273
(February 2003): 25–26.
12. Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, “A Cultural Field in the Making: Gastronomy
in 19th-Century France,” American Journal of Sociology 104, no. 3 (November
1998): 597–641 and Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine (Chi-
cago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004).
4
Typical Meals
Three meals each day is typical in France. The petit déjeuner (break-
fast), taken in the morning before school or work, is insubstantial. At
noon, the déjeuner (lunch), long the main meal for many people, may
still be substantial and served in three courses (entrée, plat, and fromage
or dessert) or may consist of a sandwich eaten on the run. The dîner, at
about 8 P.M., is now an important meal. Because both men and women
work outside the home, dinner is often the only weekday meal for which
the whole family can gather together at table. The evening meal is looked
forward to as a respite from the day’s work, as a time to see family mem-
bers, and as an opportunity to enjoy the sensual pleasures of food and
drink. The structure of the French meal, with its unfolding sequence of
courses, is especially conducive to relaxed enjoyment at table. As the
service of dishes progresses, the familiar structure frames conversation
and reinforces the separation of mealtime from the hustle and bustle of
the day.
MEAL TIMES
Today’s standard three meals evolved over centuries. Through the late
nineteenth century, eating schedules varied greatly according to profes-
sion, region, and income. Seasonal changes and religious observance
also played a role. From one to four meals daily was common, although
for different groups of people.1 Elites might eat twice daily, for example,
and manual laborers up to four times each day, but this was not consis-
tent. The names used today for the three meals recall how practices have
changed over time.2 As recently as the late eighteenth century, the first
meal, then called the déjeuner (“to break the fast”), usually consisted of
soup, most likely made of vegetables and grains, and bread; this meal could
also include meat and wine, if they were available. For those in modest
circumstances, the déjeuner might be practically the only nourishment
throughout the day. A smaller meal (le souper), again soup or light stew,
might be added in the early evening. For agricultural workers who stayed
in the fields all day long and for those who worked far from home, sup-
per was the most substantial meal. Today, the population of villagers and
rural dwellers is small, but in the countryside the word souper is still used
to mean the evening meal. For those who ate all four meals, there was the
déjeuner, the mid-day dîner (or collation), the light goûter or snack, and
then finally the souper.
As industrial jobs increased in number and urban populations became
larger, the morning déjeuner and mid-day dîner each migrated later in the
day. The professional classes preferred to eat a large déjeuner at noon or
one o’clock, that is, after accomplishing the morning’s work. By the early
nineteenth century, the mid-day meal was sometimes called a déjeuner à
la fourchette (fork luncheon). The name suggests that the presence for a
déjeuner of items other than liquid soup, wine, or coffee was still somewhat
remarkable. The déjeuner à la fourchette, which included meat and required
the use of a fork and knife, was often a working meal in the sense of today’s
business lunches. Because the first substantial meal was now relatively late,
a second, smaller déjeuner was added to tide over appetites until mid-day.
By the 1890s, this early meal was called le petit (small) déjeuner. Despite
the importance of the mid-day meal, the custom of privileging the evening
dîner gained in the nineteenth century, as larger numbers of people culti-
vated the leisurely enjoyment of carefully prepared, possibly quite elabo-
rate and luxurious meals in a sociable setting.
After the Second World War, technological modernization and the
massive exodus from villages and rural areas to cities transformed society.
The demographic and industrial shift resulted in the shared work schedule
that now prevails. Affluence also made significant social reforms possible,
including the month of paid vacation given to salaried workers since 1965
(converted to five weeks in 1981) and the 35-hour workweek instituted
in the late 1990s. Today, the sense of leisure, material comfort, and con-
vivial enjoyment that accompanies the working-class, middle-class and
modern bourgeois family dinner makes an equally important contribution
to quality of life. School and most work schedules are designed to allow
Typical Meals 105
breaks for meals. Some shops and offices close at mid-day, to reopen in
the afternoon at 1:30 or 2:00 P.M.; others do not keep late evening hours,
so that staff have evenings free. Because most people throughout the
country take meals at about the same time, there is a strong shared feel-
ing of the rhythm of the day. As a culture, the French place a high value
on sociability and community. Eating is considered a convivial activity
par excellence. Many think that to eat “all alone” (manger tout seul) is sad,
that food tastes better when it is shared. The community aspect of meals
strengthens social ties and even the sense of equality, making the meal an
expression of shared values.
As in many countries, the family meal is at times a locus of tension.
Factors such as the fast pace of modern life, larger numbers of people liv-
ing alone, and the replacement or disappearance of the nuclear family as
the defining social unit, make the family meal seem for some irrelevant,
outmoded, or simply impossible to achieve. Especially in the younger
generation, freedom from the ritual of the family meal may be experi-
enced as an opportunity to develop a more individual lifestyle, although
others worry about a decline of traditional ways and deterioration of the
social fabric. Nonetheless, the family meal or a full meal with friends or
colleagues is a central feature of daily life.
STRUCTURE OF A MAIN MEAL

The dishes that make up a main meal appear in a succession of separate
courses. An entrée or first course might consist of soup, a plate of crudités
(raw vegetables) served with a vinaigrette dressing, or a cooked salad. This
is followed by a plat principal or main dish. A main dish usually contains
meat, poultry, or fish; it may consist of eggs, such as an omelet. Afterward
comes a green tossed salad and a cheese course, with perhaps a fruit or
sweet to finish. Bread is placed on the table throughout the meal, and
people take a slice or break off a piece of a loaf as desired. Although the
practice is frowned on in polite (such as bourgeois) circles, small pieces of
bread are used to sop up sauces and salad dressings. This is a convenient
way to clean the plate between courses if the plates are not changed, as
well as to enjoy every last drop of the sauce. Portions are small, so the
appetite is not overwhelmed by the succession of different edibles.
The French palate prefers rich and deep flavors over sharp or spicy ones,
and balance and harmony are sought when planning a meal. Edibles seek
complements, so that both ingredients end up tasting even better, and a
finished dish, be it ever so simple, becomes more than the sum of its parts.
For a summer seasonal entrée, crisp, peppery, fresh radishes are balanced
with creamy dairy butter spread on fresh bread and finished with a sprin-
kling of salt. A rich, dense slice of foie gras cries out for a spoonful of sweet-
tart currant or gooseberry preserve. For a main dish, the clean acidity of
tomato and the aroma of anise seed complement the sweet marine flavors
in a fish soup. Durable combinations of flavors and textures are sought. A
hot main dish may be followed by a crisp, cool salad. Another important
feature of French meals is the distinction between savory and sweet. It
is unusual to mix salty and sweet flavors within a single dish. Sweets are
saved for the end of a meal.
Structuring the main meal in courses is both a typical practice and
also an ideal for eating well. The expectations for a proper meal color
perceptions of other forms of eating, which are thought of as substitu-
tions or deviations. Such factors as cost, lack of time, and interest in eat-
ing lighter, smaller meals for health reasons mitigate against preparing
and eating the full succession of courses. When eating at home, many
people, especially women concerned with weight gain, replace the cheese
course with a light alternative such as yogurt. Although such substitutions
are common, there is a self-consciousness about making them, as one is
refusing what is traditional and expected. Eating a sandwich for a quick
lunch would not be called taking a meal, much less a proper meal, but
simply referred to as eating, and likely described as eating sur le pouce (in a
hurry). If a meal is abbreviated on a busy weeknight—say, pared down to a
hearty composed salad as a main dish, followed by cheese, the whole thing
accompanied by bread—the foods are nonetheless organized within the
traditional structure, which is still present in miniature. Similarly, restau-
rants serving a foreign cuisine (Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Moroccan,
and so on) adapt their menus to follow French custom. Whether or not
the practice coincides with eating custom in the country of origin of the
food itself, menus will group dishes into entrées, plats, and desserts and vary
the portions accordingly.
BREAKFAST
The petit déjeuner is light and simple. For the morning meal adults drink
café au lait, heated milk poured with strong hot coffee into a hemispherical
bowl. Any one of several methods is used for brewing the coffee fresh: the
paper filter method in an electric coffee maker or stove-top glass cone, a
French press that allows ground coffee to release its fragrance into freshly
boiled water before a dense hard filter is lowered in to separate out the
grounds, or a stove-top Moka device that forces water up through ground
coffee by steam pressure. People sometimes add a pinch of salt, a dash of
Typical Meals 107
cinnamon, or a spoon of cocoa powder to the ground coffee to vary or

balance the flavor. Restaurant-style machines for making coffee by steam
pressure are available for use at home, and these are well liked by connois-
seurs. Alternatively, instant coffee such as Nescafé is dissolved by stirring
into hot milk. It is the hot milk in the café au lait or café crème that is
considered the nourishing part of the breakfast; the small amount of food
eaten for breakfast accompanies the café au lait. A piece of bread, such as
a section of baguette spread with butter, jam, honey, or Nutella to make
a tartine, is eaten along with the coffee. Dunking the bread or pastry into
the coffee is a beloved practice. The depth and large diameter of the café
au lait bowl are accommodating for this purpose. For weekend breakfasts
or a special treat, pastry such as croissants or brioche (from yeasted dough
enriched with butter) replaces plain bread. Those who seek to avoid caf-
feine stir powdered roasted chicory root, with its pleasing dark brown
color and nutty flavor, into their morning hot milk. Children drink hot
chocolate. In recent years tea has become more popular, although it is
not considered a sustaining beverage. Processed cereals such as corn flakes
or puffed rice eaten with cold milk are now popular enough that grocery
stores stock them, including many of the American brands. The health-
conscious add a glass of fruit juice or a serving of yogurt to their breakfast.
In cities, a few restaurants serve brunch, but le brunch is considered an
exotic meal, quite out of the ordinary. On late weekend mornings, people
do not eat a large breakfast, but simply drink coffee or nothing at all and
eat a regular lunch.
MORNING SNACK
Children begin the school day at 8:30 A.M., and at about 10:30 A.M.
break for la collation du matin, the morning snack. The snack is brought
from home, or it may be provided by the parents of each child for the
whole class on a rotating schedule. An effort is made to provide foods that
are considered healthful and appropriate for the late morning: bread and
cheese, a small sandwich made of buttered bread with a slice of ham, fruit
yogurt, or a piece of fruit such as an apple.
COFFEE BREAKS
Working people and students take a break (une pause) in the morning
or afternoon to drink small cups of strong coffee. After the breakfast café
au lait, any coffee drunk at other times of day is taken without milk.
Un café, also called un petit café or un petit noir, is served in a demi-tasse
(“half-cup,” i.e., a very small cup). It is taken plain or with sugar, accord-
ing to taste. The few sips of strong coffee are considered outside the range
of foods and meals. The small coffees are not seen as nourishing, as food
is, but rather as revivifying. In cafés, a coffee can be drunk standing up
at a counter, if one is in a hurry, or at a more leisurely pace sitting at a
table. In a café, or if the coffee is being made at home with a restaurant-
style machine, it is common to specify a preference for coffee that is serré
(dense), that is, stronger and smaller, with less water used relative to
the amount of ground coffee, or allongé (“stretched out”), made with more
water. At many businesses and high schools, and at airports and highway
rest stops, cups of coffee can be purchased from vending machines that
grind the beans and brew a fresh cup.
LUNCH
Lunch is between noon and about 2 P.M., with schools scheduling a full
two hours for the mid-day meal and pause and many businesses allowing a
similar break. The break is long enough to allow for a relaxed meal and
for socializing with colleagues, friends, or family, so that a bit of leisure is
built into the work day. Since the break is substantial, the work day and
school day extend relatively late into the afternoon.
Lunch at School
Primary schools schedule the lunch break from about 11:30 A.M. to
1:30 P.M., or until 2:00 P.M. if the day ends at 5 P.M. to accommodate
parents’ work schedules; of course, there is some variation in these times
across the country. By law emanating from the Ministry of Education,
schools are required to provide lunch for children whose parents both
work or whose parents are unemployed but seeking work. Both parents
must provide proof of their employment status, so that their child quali-
fies to eat lunch at school. About 66 percent of primary school children
take lunch at school. Schools, like businesses, have a cantine or cafeteria
that provides a full, hot meal, either prepared on the premises if there is
a full kitchen facility, or hired by the school from a catering company.
Starting in the early 1970s, public schools were required to provide half of
the day’s nutritional requirements through the school lunch. This ruling
was based on the assumption that children ate the main meal at home in
the evening, however, and the school lunch was often extremely simple,
such as a cold plate of sandwiches or charcuterie. Recent demographic and
nutritional information has led to changed recommendations. As of the
Typical Meals 109
year 2000, school lunches must provide 40 percent of daily nutritional

needs; it is assumed that the rest comes from breakfast (20 percent), a
snack (10 percent), and dinner (30 percent).3
In theory the school meal serves more than simply the nutritional needs
of children and adolescents. Since the early 1980s, official statements
from the Ministry of Education have noted the importance of meals for
education. At table, children develop social and communication skills. In
learning to eat balanced meals, they learn principles for maintaining good
health and understanding food safety. In learning how to eat “well,” how
to eat a “proper” meal, they learn to understand and appreciate food. Thus
school meals are legislated as sites for taste education, which in turn assists
in the development of a national identity and to maintain the culture.
School lunches vary in character and quality, according to organization
at the local level. In primary schools and nursery schools, the municipal
jurisdiction or city oversees lunch preparations. The département or pre-
fecture is in charge of organizing meals for secondary schools, and the
regional authority takes on responsibility for high school meals. Gener-
ally, however, following the current norm, school lunch consists of an
entrée of a salad or vegetable, a meat or fish dish accompanied by cooked
vegetables, a dessert, and bread. The school lunch is a topic of ongoing
debate. At issue today are interest in organizing cantines to include local
and regional foods; to what degree schools should cater to students unable
to eat the standard fare because of religious background; and the need
to balance nutritional concerns with commercial pressures. A prevalent
worry is how to promote milk and water over soft drinks and to ensure
that children consume adequate fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid too
much fat and sugar.
Culinary Heritage in Schools

If ideological concerns shape the school lunch, the annual Semaine du
goût or Week of Taste held every October since 1991 represents another
means of promoting culinary and gastronomic education in schools. Pro-
fessional chefs leave their restaurants to teach lessons about food, cooking,
and eating in public secondary schools. The educational effort extends
even to the adult population, perceived as insufficiently knowledgeable
in the culinary heritage of their own country. During the Semaine du goût,
restaurants offer traditional meals at reduced prices.4 The establishment
of the Week of Taste owes much to the corporate interests that, along
with the government, underwrite the effort. It also betrays concerns about
the demise of national cultural identity in the era of Europeanization and
Butchers wearing the asymmetrical aprons of their trade distribute samples of

roast beef during a school taste class. Students are wearing the protective clean-
room garments that butchers put on when they break down carcasses. Courtesy
of Christian Verdet/regard public-unpact.
globalization. Yet the Semaine du goût also manifests a democratic, uni-

versalistic idea. The cultivation of taste and the pleasure of eating well,
like reading and mathematics, are a matter of education and should be
accessible to all.
Lunch at Work
Many businesses offer some sort of meal subsidy to employees as a benefit.
Businesses of substantial enough size and nearly every large corporation
have an in-house restaurant de l’entreprise (company restaurant), commonly
called the cantine (canteen), where employees eat lunch. The cantine is
generally set up cafeteria-style. One selects the components of a full meal,
placing the dishes on a tray: bread, a hot main dish, salads, cooked vegeta-
bles, yogurt, cheese, fruit, water and coffee, wine and beer. Lunch in a com-
pany cantine is relatively inexpensive, as companies subsidize meals there.
An employee may pay in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 Euros for a full meal in
the cantine, where the same meal would cost two to three times this price
in a restaurant. Another way that businesses subsidize their employees’
Typical Meals 111
meals is through the ticket-restaurant. Employees purchase coupons from

their companies at a discount, paying about 3 Euros for a coupon worth 5,
for example. The voucher is used like a traveler’s check in restaurants, at
a traiteur or caterer’s to buy prepared food to take out, or to purchase food
from the charcutier and in other food shops. If no cantine is available, people
bring lunch from home, return home, or take lunch in a restaurant.
AFTERNOON SNACK
Every day children look forward to the goûter or afternoon snack that
marks their return home from school. Schools and the garderie (child
care) usually let out at 4:30 P.M., or in some areas as late as 5:00 or 6:00
P.M., timed to coincide with the end of the parents’ workday. The snack
is partially a matter of practical necessity, as children find the wait from
lunch until dinner too long to tolerate comfortably. It is also a way for
parents to welcome their children home after school, reestablish contact
after the separation of the afternoon or entire day, and conversationally
catch up on the day’s news. The goûter is similar to the morning collation,
but is more likely to consist of something sweet: bread and a piece of
chocolate or some Nutella; pain perdu (French toast, or “lost” stale bread
that is brought back to life by soaking in eggs and milk, then sautéing in
butter); a tartine spread with jam or honey; a crushed soft fresh fruit such
as an apricot or peach sprinkled with a bit of sugar and eaten on a piece
of toast; a piece of freshly baked pastry; a piece of fruit that can be eaten
out of hand; and a glass of fruit juice or milk. To tempt the youthful sweet
tooth there are any number of produits industriels (packaged or processed
products), from biscuits (plain butter cookies or the same thing covered
with chocolate) and gâteaux (individual portions of sponge cake with
chocolate) to Kinder (the brand name and generic moniker of chocolate
covered wafers, nuts, or raisins).
High-school students and adults may take a coffee or a cup of tea in the
late afternoon, and perhaps an apple, a yogurt, a tartine, or a pastry.
Snacking versus Eating Well

Beyond the collation and goûter given to children, snacking in general
is frowned on for adults, as one of several ways of eating poorly. To eat
well (bien manger, manger correctement) or to eat “normally” (manger
normalement) means sticking to the three main meals, eating a variety
of foods thought to be reasonably healthful, and eating in moderation.
Eating when one is not hungry is seen as excessive. At table people may
sociably announce as they help themselves to an extra serving of a well-

liked dish, that they are eating par gourmandise, some combination of
greed and pleasure, as if to excuse themselves even as they draw attention
to the indulgence as exceptional. The word is significant. Since the late
eighteenth century, gourmand, like the later word gastronome, has meant
a knowledgeable eater. Yet the term derives from gourmandise or gluttony,
one of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Catholic tradition. Eating outside
the setting of the large regular meals of lunch and dinner, or snacking,
is seen as unnecessary, even antisocial. Nonetheless, in recent years, as
eating patterns change to accommodate long commutes and intensively
scheduled work days, the practice of snacking has increased, but the onus
connected with it has not diminished.
WEEKDAY DINNER
Busy schedules during the week contribute to the preference for dishes
that are relatively quick and simple to prepare and to some abbreviation
of the full sequence of courses. At home, the preference is for fast cooking
methods, such as sautéing, searing, broiling, and grilling, and for food-
stuffs that respond well to these methods, such as steaks and chops, as well
as fillets of firm-fleshed fish, such as salmon and tuna. A typical weekday
dinner might begin with a salad of grated carrots dressed with mustard
vinaigrette; progress to a portion of sautéed onglet (similar to hangar steak)
garnished with butter, salt, and pepper and served with some purée (mash)
of broccoli or potatoes; and finish with a green salad and a piece of cheese.
Bread is eaten throughout the meal to accompany each course.
Apéritif
Drinking an apéritif or cocktail before a full meal, whether lunch or (more
commonly) dinner, is enjoyed as an overture to conversation, as well as for
whetting the appetite. On busy weekdays, the apéritif or apéro often falls
by the wayside, but for more leisurely meals on weekends or holidays, it is
a welcome opening act to a full meal. In summer, a kir or sweet white wine
such as Muscat or Monbazillac may be served chilled; pastis, whiskey, and
mixed drinks are all standard apéritifs for adults. Children drink a sirop
such as mint or barley syrup poured over ice and mixed with water. Some
sort of food accompanies the apéritif. Favorite appetizers include toasts or
thin slices of bread with rillettes or rounds of sliced hard sausage, baked
savory biscuits, a small piece of pissaladière (Provençal pizza topped with
caramelized onions), and gougères (baked cheese puffs). Many families
Typical Meals 113
keep crunchy or salty foods on hand as appetizers to lay out in small bowls:
olives, peanuts or cashews, chips, small salted crackers. It is also common
to go out for a predinner drink with friends or family before moving on to
dinner at a restaurant or returning home to eat. The invitation to prendre
un verre or prendre un pot (go out for a drink) is social and understood to
mean a drink taken together before dinner.
WEEKEND MEALS: SATURDAY DINNER AND SUNDAY LUNCH

On the weekend there is more time to create elaborate meals and use
slower cooking methods and to linger over the meal with family and
friends. Many city dwellers will leave town for the day if not the whole
weekend, to stay at a second residence or to visit extended family. With a
weekend party of family or friends, there are more hands to help out, and a
great deal of socializing takes place as everyone moves about the kitchen.
Saturday evening is often reserved for socializing with friends, and Sunday
lunch is traditionally a meal taken with family. Both are likely to be
cooked and eaten at a leisurely pace and in a festive atmosphere.
Weekend meals usually consist of the full range of courses and include
a before-dinner drink. Historically, fish was eaten on Friday evenings for
religious reasons, but this custom is hardly observed anymore. Some of the
more elaborate dishes make large quantities of food that require a greater
number of eaters to consume them. A roast leg of lamb studded with slivers
of garlic and rubbed with rosemary branches and served with baked white
haricot beans, or a chicken roasted on a bed of sliced onions and carrots,
are typical centerpieces for weekend meals. Blanquette de veau or d’agneau
(white veal or lamb stew) is a dish that people make at home in the spring
and for Easter Sunday. The dish has many variations, including browning
the meat before adding the liquid, despite the name blanquette.5
Veal Stew (Blanquette de veau)

• 2 pounds shoulder of veal
• 1 large onion
• 5 sprigs parsley
• 10 peppercorns (whole)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 cloves garlic
• 4 cups water
• 12 pearl onions, peeled
• 5 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced, then sautéed in butter
Cut the veal into 2-inch pieces. Place the veal, onion, parsley, peppercorns,
salt, and water in a saucepan. The water should just cover the other
ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 60
minutes.
Add the pearl onions and carrots, and simmer 15 minutes more. Test to
make sure the veal is tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat,
carrots, and pearl onions to a serving dish.
Strain the broth, then simmer until it reduces by about one-third. Stir in
the lemon juice. Reduce the heat under the broth so it nearly stops
simmering.
Beat the eggs yolks and cream together. Stir a ladle of broth into the egg
yolks and cream to temper the mixture, then pour it into the reduced
broth, continuing to stir over very gentle heat until the sauce thickens.
It should not boil.
Taste for seasoning, then pour the sauce over the meat. Arrange the cooked
mushrooms on top as a garnish.
Enjoy the stew hot with rice or boiled potatoes.
In the summer, outdoor barbecues are popular for weekend gather-

ings, for a main course consisting of grilled meats such as spicy merguez,
chicken, and steaks. A weekend meal often ends with a bought pastry
such as a cake or fruit tart from a pâtissier, which adds to the sense of
occasion.
Other traditional preparations having any number of regional variations
include daube (beef stew), a slow-simmered poule-au-pot (stuffed chicken
stewed with vegetables), and pot-au-feu (mixed boiled meats). Pot-au-feu
(“pot on the fire”) derives its flavor from the combination of three or more
whole cuts of meat that are cooked together with a few vegetables and
herbs. A very large pot or multiple pots are required to hold the ingre-
dients, which usually include a combination of fattier and leaner meats,
such as flank, sirloin, and tailbones (oxtail) or a marrow bone. Regional
variations add other meats than beef, such as ham, veal, bacon, pork
sausage, preserved duck (confit de carnard), or lamb. Vegetables added to
the pot include carrots, celery, potatoes, turnips, onions, garlic, and leeks.
Parsley or the selection of herbs called bouquet garni is added as well. The
flavorful broth is served as a first course. Afterward, the meats are sliced
and arranged on platters, and served moistened with a bit of the cooking
Typical Meals 115
broth. The tender, mild, richly succulent meat is balanced with pungent,
salty, or sour condiments: mustard, grated horseradish, cornichons (small
sharp pickles), capers, coarse sea salt. Inevitably pot-au-feu gives leftovers
that can be reheated for another meal or transformed into other dishes,
such as a cold salad or a baked meat tourte.
ENTERTAINING AT HOME: MEALS FOR GUESTS

When close friends are invited to share the regular family meal, there
may be little extra ceremony; this is a treasured sign of intimacy. In other
cases, all stops are pulled for guests invited into the home. The extra effort
is made out of respect for the guest but also to do honor to the hosts. The
full sequence of courses will be carefully prepared and attention given
to buy the best ingredients, cheeses, and so on that the hosts can afford.
Wine is considered an essential component of a good meal, and it is cer-
tainly a symbol for the successful middle-class lifestyle. Although water is
the most common beverage at the dinner table, a bottle or bottles of wine,
as well as other alcohols, will be selected in anticipation of having guests.
The same principle of balance that guides the choices of foods in a meal
also applies to selecting pairings of wine and food. After the meal, coffee
may be offered, and small glasses of after-dinner liqueurs.
LATE SUPPERS
After going out to the movies or the theatre, or after a day of skiing dur-
ing a winter vacation, people may make a very late meal at home or eat in
one of the relatively few restaurants that keep late hours. A late souper or
supper may consist of nearly anything: a dish of pasta or a composed salad
made at home; the specialty of a favorite late-night bistro, be it oysters
on the half-shell, pigs’ feet boiled then roasted to a golden brown in the
oven, or a cold plate of local charcuterie. A hot soup such as onion is
appreciated as a restorative at any hour of the night after going out.
Simple Onion Soup (Soupe à l’oignon)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 3 1/2 cups water or broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt
• pepper
• 6 slices of day-old bread, preferably a dense-crumbed, crusty variety

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 cups Gruyère cheese, grated
In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the onions, cover, and
cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toward the end of
cooking they should form a soft mass and be uniformly brown in color.
Add the water or broth and the wine. Raise the heat to medium to bring
the mixture to a simmer. Uncover the pot, and simmer gently for 45
minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
For the croutons, preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the bread slices with
olive oil, place on a baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes, until
golden.
To serve the soup, place a crouton in the bottom of each soup bowl. Ladle
on the onion broth, and sprinkle on the grated cheese to garnish.
Or, if you prefer, ladle the soup into individual ramekins or a tureen that
can go in the oven. Bake 20 minutes at 450° F to melt and brown the
cheese. Serve bubbling hot.
NOTES
1. Jean-Louis Flandrin, “Les heures des repas en France avant le XIXe siècle,”
pp. 197–225 in Maurice Aymard, Claude Grignon, and Françoise Sabban, eds., Le
Temps de manger: Alimentation, emploi du temps et rythmes sociaux (Paris: Editions
de la Maison des sciences de l’homme and INRA, 1993).
2. Claude Grignon, “La règle, la mode et le travail: La genèse social du
modèle des repas français contemporain,” pp. 275–323 in Aymard, Grignon, and
Sabban.
3. Isabelle Téchoueyres, “Eating at School in France: An Anthropological
Analysis of the Dynamics and Issues Involved in Implementing Public Policy,”
pp. 373–87 in Marc Jacobs and Peter Scholliers, eds., Eating Out in Europe
(Oxford: Berg, 2003).
4. Adam Sage, “French turn up noses at their own food,” The Times of London
(October 14, 2000); “La Semaine du goût,” Le Monde (October 20, 1994); Jean
Claude Ribaut, “Parlons goût” and “À palais ouverts,” Le Monde (October 15,
1994); and Michele Aulagnon and Vincent Charbonnier, “La quatrième édition
de la semaine du goût,” Le Monde (October 23, 1993).
5. Jean-Louis Flandrin, La blanquette de veau: Histoire d’un plat bourgeois,
preface by Patrick Rambourg (Paris: Jean-Paul Rocher, 2002).
5
Eating Out
Eating at home is the norm for most people on most days, yet traditions
of eating out go back centuries, and the practice is typical. The French
do not eat outside of the home as frequently as residents of some nations
with a comparable standard of living, such as the United Kingdom.
Nonetheless, the trend to take meals outside of the home increases
perceptibly in France, if not as quickly as in some affluent nations.
Between 1970 and 1990, household spending on eating out increased
.25 percent, and expenditure for food to be eaten at home fell by a full
7 percent. An estimate from 2004 calculated 9 billion meals out taken
annually. Of these people ate 3.7 billion meals in cafeterias and other
collective settings and 4.6 billion in commercial restaurants, from fine
restaurants gastronomiques to fast-food restaurants and chains. At present,
the average is 120 meals outside of the home yearly, or one meal out
every three days.1 In the past, especially in urban areas, the lack of space
and tools for cooking, the wish for social interaction, and the need for
a public location to transact business motivated people to eat outside
of the home. The current practice of taking meals in commercial res-
taurants is the result of affluence and the incursion of work into meal-
time. Restaurant offerings are varied. Traditional or regional bills of fare,
cuisines from other nations and cultures, novelty establishments where
the interest lies as much with atmosphere as with food, and fast food and
chains contribute to the restaurant scene.
STREET FOODS
Although it is not necessary for most people today to eat in the street,
urban areas, in particular, never lack for food to tempt those on foot. In the
summer, boulangeries open up their storefronts to display squares of pizza
and triangles of quiche. Pizza can also be purchased from stationary trucks.
Crêpes with a choice of fillings—sugar, Nutella, crème de marrons (chestnut
cream), purée de pommes (thick, jam-like apple sauce)—can be purchased
in the street. During the summer, ice cream stores open windows that face
onto the street so that one can line up for a cone. In parks, cold stands or
trucks for ice cream are popular among children. Regions have their own
specialties that vendors sell at stands, out of trucks, or from narrow win-
dows and counters that open up directly onto the street. Niç ois socca is the
delicate-textured, nutty-flavored savory pancake made of chickpea flour
that is served up blistering hot directly from a round griddle. In the cities
of the South, the favorite sandwich is pan bagnat, baguette filled with tuna,
black olives, tomato wedges, and slices of hard boiled egg, the whole richly
The sign for Jean-Pierre Coumont’s ice-cream and sorbet in Saint Tropez (Var)
indicates that they are hand-made by the sellers using pure fruits and no food
colorings. Courtesy of Janine Depoil.
Eating Out 119
laced with olive oil; as one eats, one peels away the waxed paper wrapping
that contains the juices. During the cold months in the North, vendors sell
hot roasted or boiled chestnuts and paper cones of freshly toasted peanuts
made crunchy with delicately caramelized sugar.
CAFÉS
As variations on earlier establishments, cafés and restaurants emerged
during the early modern era. Today there is little that is more typical
than to sit in a café to talk with friends, read the paper, or simply watch
people and the world go by. Cafés may have an elegant, chic, grungy,
or studious atmosphere; often they are simple and unpretentious. They
all serve coffee and some choice of soft drinks, syrups, and fruit juices.
The latter may be freshly squeezed from citrus fruits such as oranges or
lemons. More commonly, one chooses a bottled juice; apricot, apple, and
tomato are usually on hand. Many cafés serve wine, beer, alcohols, and
some choice of food, whether small savory dishes or a selection of pastries.
Cafés open early in the morning serve tartines (buttered bread, usually
baguette) and pastries such as croissants along with café crème, hot coffee
mixed with heated milk. A more old-fashioned sort of café may have a
football table for baby-foot, a lane for bowling running the length of the
café, or a regular Sunday afternoon bingo game that neighborhood resi-
dents attend. The fusty, or comfortable, atmosphere in some cafés is typi-
cally enhanced by clouds of cigarette smoke. Smoking in public places has
been illegal since 1992, and restaurants and cafés are obliged to provide
space for non-fumeurs. In practice, however, nonsmokers are often seated
right next to fumeurs (smokers), the barrier dividing the two being quite
imaginary and certainly ineffective. The interdiction is seen by many
as an infringement on personal freedom. The habit of smoking sociably
while drinking and even eating dies hard, although levels of smoking are
on the decline.2 In recent years, the opening of Starbucks cafés has added
a new variety of chain, along with the possibility of taking away oversized
paper cups of the American-style coffee made to any number of untradi-
tional specifications: decaffeinated, flavored, mixed with soy, whole, or
skim milk.
RESTAURANTS, BISTROS, AND BRASSERIES

Types of restaurants that emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century shape today’s culture of eating out. The term bistro (or bistrot) is
thought to have appeared in the 1880s. Its etymology is unclear. It may
derive from the injunction to hurry (bystra) up the food that Russians in
Paris spoke to waiters. The term bistouille used in the North to mean a
hearty mixture of brandy and hot coffee is a more likely source. Historically,
bistros have been restaurants that serve alcohols and a relatively small
selection of foods for one-course meals. There is a strong association to
this term with a warm, comfortable, unpretentious atmosphere, although
a recent trend that blurs this characteristic is for very chic restaurants to
call themselves bistros. Bistros and restaurants have their own specialties
or regional inflections, but standard popular items include such classics as
oysters on the half-shell; steak-frites, or seared steak served with French
fried potatoes on the side; moules marinières (mussels cooked in the shell
in a light broth flavored with white wine); omelets; roast chicken; braised
chicken or pintade (Guinea fowl) with tarragon sauce; steak tartare; sole
meunière; purée de pommes de terre (mashed potatoes); tarte Tatin (cara-
melized upside-down apple tart); poire à la belle Hélène or a poached pear
served with vanilla ice cream and decorated with chocolate sauce. Since
the late nineteenth century many Parisian bistros and cafés have been
run by bougnats (from charbonnier, coal burner or porter; charbougna in the
Auvergnat patois). These natives of the Auvergne initially came to Paris
to sell coal mined in their region. Some began selling wine, then ended
up running restaurants (including the famous Brasserie Lipp and the Café
de Flore) and forming a tightly supportive community of regional expa-
triates based in the capital. The term bistro is now used throughout the
country for a restaurant. The typical Parisian establishment also has its
counterparts in the homey local places for other cities or regions, such as
the bouchon in Lyon and winstub in the Alsace region.
Brasser means to brew beer, and a brasserie was a brewery where one
went primarily to drink beer. Brasseries appeared during the Second
Empire, increasing in number after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and
the development of the train line linking Strasbourg to Paris. Today, few
brasseries brew their own beer. Rather, a contemporary brasserie is a café or
a restaurant that serves drinks, especially bière à la pression (draft beer, beer
on tap) and sometimes hard cider, along with a limited menu. Because of
the focus on drinking, brasseries tend to stay open later than restaurants.
Many have a distinctly Germanic or Flemish flair. A brasserie alsacienne
serving food will offer Alsatian specialties such as cooked sausages,
choucroute (sauerkraut), flammekeuche (a thin crust like that of a pizza
topped with caramelized onion and bits of bacon), and baeckeoffe (a stew
with thinly sliced peeled potatoes and a mixture of beef, pork, and lamb).
Brasseries that offer literally hundreds of different bottled and draft beers
are sometimes referred to as bars belges (Belgian bars).
Eating Out 121
The rise of trains and then automobiles encouraged travel, the growth
of tourism, and more variations on the restaurant theme. Buffets de la gare
and cafés de la gare became fixtures in train stations. Restaurants serving
regional specialties and located far from the capital came into fashion.
During the belle époque and by the start of the twentieth century, high-
end restaurants appeared in the grand hotels. The turn of the century
witnessed the spectacular collaborations between chef Auguste Escoffier
and the enterprising Swiss hotelier César Ritz. Paris still had the lion’s
share of elegant dining spots. The new modes of transportation, however,
made fashionable other locations such as Cannes, where Napoleon III
and the Empress Eugénie regularly wintered, Nice, and Biarritz. Today,
good restaurants and the finest restaurants gastronomiques or restaurants
gourmands are to be found all over the country, in the countryside and in
smaller towns as well as in the cities.
MESS HALLS AND CAFETERIAS

For many, the daily experience of eating outside the home has taken
place in a collective setting such as an army mess hall or a cafeteria in
school or at work. During the Middle Ages, crusaders were quartered
in the towns on their routes. The diet varied with geography and the
circumstances of the hosts who “offered” them bed and board, in fact a
compulsory gesture. The late sixteenth century saw the organization of
internal units whose task was specifically to provision troops, while sutlers
tagged along behind to sell foodstuffs directly to soldiers. During the
lengthy Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century, in the north and west
of France, soldiers ate meat, wine, and bread, substituting fish (including
stockfisch), eggs, and dairy products on lean days. Vivandiers, or specialized
army cooks, appeared in the eighteenth century. Where waging war had
long been the prerogative of the aristocracy, common soldiers in addition
to mercenaries became more numerous in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Most soldiers subsisted primarily on soup and had to share mess
kits. Eventually, military doctors intervened, adding ratatouilles (which in
this context signified meat stews or ragoûts, not vegetable stew) a couple
of times each week. The pressing need to provision troops constantly on
the move under Napoleon was answered by Nicolas Appert’s development
of sterile jarring techniques, later perfected with cans. In the notoriously
abysmal conditions of the First World War, both private and military cooks
and suppliers carried bread, beans, rice, and soup through the labyrinth of
trenches directly to the front line. Canned and jarred goods had met with
a largely negative reaction throughout the nineteenth century.3 Now the
appearance of a jar of jam or a can of sardines boosted the morale of the

beleaguered troops. Officers fared better than their troops; as a young man
Auguste Escoffier began his career in the field, cooking up miracles for
French officers participating in the Franco-Prussian conflict of 1870.
Eating out as a student has ever been a conundrum: one is poor and
always hungry. For centuries, educational institutions were run by
the Church, with much attention paid to fast days including the long
month of Lent and every Friday. In some medieval collèges, students were
deprived of the morning meal; in contrast with the physically extenuat-
ing activities of the laborer, the student’s life was sedentary.4 Most often
school meals were vegetable soups, such as cabbage, and bread. During
the sixteenth century, the collèges instituted tables for 16 or 25 students in
a salle commune. One was not to cultivate the art of conversation, how-
ever, but rather to keep silent throughout the meal while listening to a
theological reading. As a result of the imposed silence and the exigencies
of keeping one’s thoughts to sacred themes, conviviality, not to mention
intellectual exchange, presumably was martyred at the table. Communi-
cation was reduced to a sign language specific to the table, for instance to
request the bread.5 Through the end of the nineteenth century, food in
schools varied greatly, as there was little in the way of dietary standards
or accountability. Even in a wealthy school, the bursar might divert meal
allowances to other purposes, to the detriment of the pupils’ palettes and
stomachs. Through the early years of the Third Republic (1870–1940),
the best-fed pupils were often those who could afford to bring a gamelle
(metal lunch-pail) from home. This could be placed on the stove for a
few minutes at mid-day, so that the student ate a home-cooked hot meal,
whether of gruel, soup, or stew.
It is easy to overlook the central role that cantines—cafeterias in collec-
tive settings—have played in daily life for the last century. This is due to
the prestige of fine dining and commercial restaurants, on the one hand,
and the ideal of the family meal at home, on the other. People often have
the mistaken impression that taking a meal in a cafeteria is somehow an
exceptional practice. The French, however, rely more on cafeterias than
any other nation in Europe. Today, about 56 percent of meals taken out-
side the home are taken in an institutional cafeteria, with 40 percent
of those meals at businesses, 34 percent at schools, and 26 percent at
hospitals and services related to hospitals.6
The development of cafeterias owes to notions of equality traceable
to the Revolution of 1789 and to the sense of secular social mission and
conception of the public good that was cultivated during the Third and
Fourth Republics. The reformist, progressive principles took their effects
Eating Out 123
in both schools and business settings. In 1881, the Ferry Law mandated
that a public school education be made available to all children. As a
practical proviso, the government encouraged schools to provide warm
meals to needy students during the cold months of the school year. The
cafeteria, then, was conceived as social intervention on a national scale.
The public schools are administered by municipalities. With the alloca-
tion of school budgets for cafeterias came strong associations with local
politics. Schools had to balance issues of cost and efficiency with the wish
to highlight typical regional dishes and the need to serve balanced and
nutritious meals. As cafeterias became common, the practice of bringing
food to school from home declined. Today, most students take the mid-
day meal at school; however, a student must demonstrate the need for a
school lunch with formal attestations that his or her parents work or are
seeking work and are thus unavailable at mid-day to provide lunch at
home.
The cafeterias that now serve lunch in nearly every sizeable business
grew out of the development of labor unions and codes of workers’ rights.
Cooperative food stores for workers appeared in the late 1830s, and
workers’ cooperative restaurants organized by trade date to 1848.7 Not
until 1913, however, did a law decree that companies having at least 25
employees who wished to eat at work must provide an eating area. There-
after an emendation required that this location be outfitted for reheating
food. If fewer than 25 employees wished to eat at work, there must at least
be a designated space for doing so. After the Second World War and the
associated problems of malnutrition, it became a matter of necessity for
students and workers to eat lunch at school or work. Cafeterias took on a
new importance in reestablishing the nation’s health and by extension its
economic vitality.
Measuring in terms of the percentage of total meals taken in cafeterias,
their use peaked in the late 1970s and has been declining, albeit slowly.
Beginning in 1967, companies that did not run cafeterias began to offer
meal vouchers for use in commercial restaurants, as an alternative benefit.
Since the 1980s, liberal or capitalist economic practices have replaced
some socialist and protectionist ones, such that companies may view
maintaining cafeterias as an unnecessary expense. The Aubry Law of 1998
reduced the workweek to a maximum of 35 hours for private companies
having more than 20 employees. This automatically excluded at least one
cafeteria meal from many schedules. Cafeterias originated to provide a
benefit to workers. As nonprofits, cafeterias are subject to lower levels of
the TVA or taxe à la valeur ajoutée (VAT or value added tax) than applies
to restaurants, and this savings is passed on to workers. Ironically, their
presence on a company campus or in an office is sometimes now felt as a

constraint, for eating in the cafeteria keeps employees in the workplace
and discourages lingering over lunch in a leisurely manner. The year of
army service used to be obligatory for young men finishing their secondary
education, but mandatory conscription ended in 1997, resulting in less
use of military cafeterias. In response, the large companies are evolving
by catering for sports matches and tournaments, for festivals or holidays
having parades and other outdoor events, and also by providing branded
items for companies.
EATING OUT AND THE CULINARY HERITAGE

Interest in food as connected with particularities of place took on
an especially clear definition in the twentieth century, with important
consequences for eating out. Published travel accounts had been popular
since the eighteenth century, and guidebooks such as the Guide Joanne
circulated widely in the nineteenth century. In 1900, the tire company
Michelin, based in Clermont-Ferrand, established a new Guide pour les
chauffeurs et les vélocipédistes (Guide for Drivers and Cyclists) to promote
the automobile tourism that would increase their profits. Following
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century almanacs that listed boutiques and
then restaurants, and the first descriptive restaurant guide published in
the early nineteenth century, the Guide Michelin soon came to mention
food and wine specialties for each region. In 1926, a rating system for res-
taurants was introduced, in the form of a star to indicate a good table. The
further distinctions of two and three stars appeared in the early 1930s.
The Michelin stars are still the most widely recognized, if now also deeply
controversial, of laurels for restaurants. The rankings of the Guide Michelin
(today called the Guide Rouge) are defined relative to the road. A single
star indicates une très bonne table, a “very good” table in the elite category.
Two stars go to a restaurant that vaut le détour (is “worth the detour”) off
of the main highway. The coveted third star indicates a menu of such
quality that the restaurant is a worthy travel destination all by itself.
Gastronomic tourism was now established as a serious undertaking, and
there was much to know about the culinary subcultures within the country.
Concurrent to the establishment of the Michelin rating system, the nov-
elist Marcel Rouff and journalist and food writer Curnonsky (Maurice
Edmond Sailland) assembled the Tour de France Gastronomique published
in 24 volumes between 1921 and 1928. The title echoes that of the Tour
de France bicycle race established in the late nineteenth century, and the
comprehensive scope is suggestive. A few years later and with a different
Eating Out 125
collaborator (Augustin Croze), Curnonsky published another work on the

same topic entitled the Trésor gastronomique de la France (1933). Again,
the title is telling. Trésor means an investment, capital, or principle worth
preserving (here, the gastronomic “treasury”); an undiscovered or unex-
pected windfall (as in hidden treasure); and a place where riches are kept.
One should, in short, note the fascination and bankability of the varied
food and food customs of the entire country.
During the second half of the twentieth century, food and food mores
increasingly became the focus of legislation that sought to institutionalize
cultural practice. In the 1950s, as part of the economic and cultural
rebuilding that followed the Second World War, Charles de Gaulle
appointed the novelist and diplomat André Malraux to head a new
Ministère des affaires culturelles (Ministry of Cultural Affairs). His charge
was to promote the héritage or patrimoine culturel (national cultural
heritage), as well as the sense of history. The idea was to expose as many
individuals as possible to the riches of French culture and to ensure the
creation of artistic and intellectual works that would continue to enrich
it. To avoid the usual Parisian bias, the Malraux Law of 1962 was further
designed to encourage cultural activity across the nation. Underpinning
the ministry and legislation was the deep respect for the past, a strong
sense of appréciation or understanding combined with enjoyment, and
the conviction that government intervention is necessary to foster and
protect culture. These attitudes would soon be specifically extended to
food culture, as in the Plat du terroir (Terroir Dishes) initiative begun in
1985. The charter for this undertaking noted the “incomparable” rich-
ness of France’s culinary cultures. The document proclaimed the goal to
acquaint not only visitors and foreigners but also French citizens them-
selves—who may be ignorant of their own culture—with aspects of the
patrimoine and specifically with “the varied palette of our tables.”8 During
the next decade, an initiative sponsored jointly by the state and vari-
ous corporations began bringing chefs into schools for the annual fall
Semaine du goût (Week of Taste) that gives children a practical course
under professional supervision in eating traditional foods. The state
commissioned the publication of the Inventaire culinaire du patrimoine de la
France (1992–1996), a set of 22 volumes that take “culinary inventory” of
the country by region. Since 1993, printed roadmaps and posted signs on
highways throughout the country indicate national Sites remarquables du
goût (Taste Sites Worthy of Note) as attractions for travelers and tourists,
whether French or foreign nationals.
The state, then, invests in the institutionalization of the culinary
heritage and in the promotion of quality, and it may be said to pursue a
gastronomic and culinary policy. It does so through specific legislation that

complements regulation against fraud, laws to protect health and safety,
and policies of agricultural protectionism, today the source of ongoing
tension within the country and, notoriously, with other nations in the
European Union and beyond. The notions of regional cuisine and local
specialty, of terroir, and of the patrimoine culinaire derive from real social
practices and attitudes whose cultivation and preservation enrich the tex-
ture of daily life. These practices are also carefully cultivated, and in a
few cases invented, to serve commercial and political interests. Thanks to
careful packaging and marketing, the tourist and export trades are notable
beneficiaries. Inevitably, in the push and pull of daily life, the habitual
practices and the self-consciously elaborated ones overlap and become
closely intertwined. As a result, authenticity in the culinary domain has
become a more than usually vexed question. Specialty producers such as
fine wine makers have long appreciated and often instigated the demand
for distinguishing marks of authenticity, useful for business. For many
people, the prevailing response is pride in the culture, a sense of belonging
and participation. For others, a feeling of alienation results, or the sense
of being compelled to live in a museum. The process of patrimonialisation,
or identifying elements of culture as part of the heritage and then fulfill-
ing the corresponding obligations to preserve them, can be felt to inhibit
freedom, creativity, and innovation.
The restaurant is, by association, a site of culture if not historical preser-
vation. Eating dinner in a typical, traditional, or regional restaurant reifies
and affirms one’s very Frenchness. Chefs in elite restaurants (restaurants
gastronomiques) may make special efforts to incorporate local and AOC
items into their menus. There is great sympathy for this gesture. Beyond
the appreciation for what is fresh, the effort to identify foodstuffs and
thus to render transparent the links in the food chain responds to the
general sense that it is better to know exactly what one is eating. With
trenchant wit and insight, the sociologist Claude Fischler has named
the alternative the OCNI: objet comestible non identifié or Unidentified
Comestible Object.9 By this is meant the generic, heavily commercialized,
highly processed “product” with no visible history or origin, that passes for
food. The appreciation for local, identifiable, and AOC products can take
extreme forms. During the 1990s, a group of prominent chefs published
a manifesto protesting “alien” and “exotic” combinations of flavors and
foods. These chefs called for a return to terroir and presumably to some
sort of ideal state of absolute Frenchness. The position is exaggerated, yet
has a clear resonance.
Eating Out 127
RESTAURANT RHYMES AND REASONS

Few people today go out to eat because they lack facilities to cook at
home. The motivations lie elsewhere. Busy work schedules make the
option of being served dinner at the end of the day attractive. Those trav-
eling for business or having a long daily commute cannot eat at home. In a
country where eating well is a passion shared by so many, one may return
repeatedly to a restaurant to enjoy a favorite création de la maison (house
specialty) or to test the latest invention of a particular chef. Sampling a
cuisine from another nation allows one to traverse continents simply by
walking down the street. Restaurants and cafés are moreover much appre-
ciated as settings for social interaction. Eating dinner weekly at a neigh-
borhood bistro provides a sense of continuity and social connectedness.
Gregariousness and conviviality are characteristic social traits. Yet close
friendships require time to develop, and the home is viewed as an intimate,
private space. Eating out with a new acquaintance or a friend allows social
bonds to deepen in a neutral yet comfortable and inviting setting.
Because of the longstanding customs of eating out and the pervasive cul-
ture of socializing outside the home, it is easy to find relatively inexpensive
A typical Parisian brasserie with café-style tables for sitting outside. Courtesy of
Arnold Matthews.
places where one can eat a good meal in pleasant surroundings. Currently
the most common terms for eating and drinking establishments are res-
taurant, bistro, brasserie, and café. These are often used interchangeably.
Legally, the sale of beverages is regulated by licenses that specify a maxi-
mum allowed alcohol content per beverage. To serve food, restaurants
must register the types of items to be served, the degree of involvement of
personnel in food preparation and service, and so on. With the appropriate
licenses, the various establishments may serve both food and alcoholic
beverages. In practice, when one goes out, one goes to a “restaurant” to
eat a full meal at noon or in the evening. Of course, some cafés serve food,
and most bistros and brasseries serve full meals. On the other hand, it is
only in a café that one may order as little as a coffee (i.e., only a beverage)
and do so between meals. However, this is also possible in some bistros
and brasseries, although the beverage will more likely be a glass of wine
or a beer. A café-restaurant stays open all day and perhaps into the late
evening, serving coffee and drinks between and after meals. A café-tabac
marked with the carrotte (a red, diamond-shaped label reading tabac that
is stuck on the window) is licensed to serve as a tobacconist and sells
cigarettes.
Whether in a fancy restaurant or in a local café or bistro, eating out
has rituals all its own. Especially in smaller restaurants, it is common to
order what is referred to as a menu or formule. A selection of dishes is
offered for each of two or three courses at a fixed price for the full meal;
the sum is usually less than an à la carte total. Within families or groups
of friends, people discuss what they are thinking of ordering and from
which menu they will choose. This is partially a matter of practicality. It
is considered courteous to order a similar sequence as one’s dinner com-
panions (i.e., items from within the three-course menu choices), so that
the meal progresses according to a similar rhythm for everybody at the
table. Similarly, there is discussion as to the choice of wine. It is consid-
ered sociable to all drink the same thing and egotistical not to follow the
general wishes of the group. After the meal, l’addition (the check) is not
brought to the table right away. This would be viewed as quite rude. It is
assumed that people will take their time to eat, enjoy the pauses between
courses, and continue talking after the meal. When one is ready to leave
the restaurant, one requests the check from the waiter.
BARS AND WINE BARS

Restaurants and most cafés serve wine; many also serve beer and a
selection of alcohols. As a result, bars are not particularly central to social
Eating Out 129
life for most people. Nonetheless, the word bar owes its derivation to the
French term (une barre de comptoir) for the foot-rest close to the floor near
a counter where one stands to take a drink or to eat. Bars enjoyed a surge
in popularity at the end of the nineteenth century, when alcohol was tem-
porarily deregulated, but they declined as an institution during the Vichy
period. Today, bars that are so called (un bar) serving only wine, beer, and
drinks can be found in discos or nightclubs, in large hotels, and sometimes
in large restaurants. Some cafés that remain open late at night function
then as bars de nuit and tend to serve almost exclusively wine, beer, and
alcohols during the evening hours. With the recent fashion for drinking
high-quality wines, a new type of bar à vin or wine bar is in vogue. Much
like the specialized brasseries that serve many varieties of beer, the wine bar
offers a broad selection of bottles and is designed for sampling good wines.
The focus here is on tasting wine, and the ambience is fairly sophisticated.
Food, which may be served in small portions in the style of Spanish tapas or
Turkish mezes, takes a secondary role as an accompaniment to the wine.
TEA SHOPS
Salons de thé (tea rooms) are few in number but enjoy a faithful clientele.
Today, more women than men drink tea; tea is drunk by a few anglophiles,
by the highly educated, and by the health-conscious or those seeking to
avoid the larger amounts of caffeine in coffee. Among tea drinkers there is
much admiration for the variety of Asian and Indian teas, for the austere
ritual elegance of Japanese customs of taking tea, and for the British tradi-
tion of high tea. Most tea shops have the distinctively French touch of the
exquisite. One orders a small pot of tea, choosing from a list of different
kinds of leaves; some plain black teas may be flavored from the addition of
bergamot oil or extract of violet or rose. A selection of tisanes or herbal infu-
sions is usually available as well. The complement for tea is a pastry, a slice
of tart, or one of the more refined forms of cookie. Macaroons are well liked,
as are madeleines, the tea cakes having a scallop shape and that launched
thousands of words. Dipping one in a fragrant glass of lime (linden) tea, the
author Marcel Proust was overwhelmed with strong memories of his child-
hood and proceeded to write the lengthy semiautobiographical novel À la
recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Time Past, 1913–1927).
Madeleines
• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool
Note: Madeleines are baked in special forms that give them their distinctive
shape.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are fluffy and turn a pale, lemony
yellow. Add the vanilla. While continuing to beat the eggs, gradually
add the granulated sugar. Continue beating until the mixture doubles in
volume. Add the lemon zest.
Gradually fold in the flour mixture, then stir in the melted butter.
With additional melted butter, lightly brush the madeleine pans. Spoon in
the batter, filling each shell to two-thirds full.
Bake for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the fat part of the
little cakes comes clean. Remove the cookies from the pans, and let
them cool on a wire rack.
Makes about 3 dozen.
“EXOTIC” RESTAURANTS AND GLOBAL CUISINES

The terms exotique (exotic) and sometimes éthnique (ethnic) are used
for any kind of food, cooking, or restaurant cuisine that is not traditionally
French, and they are often applied to foreign cuisines associated with
immigrants. The use of these terms reflects the longstanding expectation
that integration into French society is effected through assimilation into
the culture; however, assimilation has also worked in the other direction
or not at all. North African couscous, familiar since the mid-twentieth
century through the presence of immigrants from former colonies, is
not typically referred to as exotique. Indeed, couscous is perceived as an
everyday food. It ranks just behind steak-frites (steak and French fried
potatoes) and gigot d’agneau (roast leg of lamb) as a familiar, reliable
favorite. At present, the large population of citizens and residents whose
national or ethnic origins are not French makes the use of a term such
as exotique unclear. Clearly, the sense of the exotic varies according to
perspective. Changes in eating habits as a result of dietary concerns and
issues of convenience, and familiarity with a variety of foods as a result of
travel and the global market, make the term even more confusing. A spe-
cialist in the sociology and anthropology of consumption points out that
for some, whether of French or other national origin, traditional regional
Eating Out 131
dishes such as cassoulet or cuisses de grenouilles (frogs’ legs) are quite exotic,
because they are not an accustomed part of the daily diet.10 It is useful to
remember that foods such as tomatoes and potatoes that are now typical
and essential in the regional cuisines are not native to French territory or
even to Europe.
Restaurants serving cuisines from outside the French territory are
reasonably popular. Italian restaurants in France tend to specialize in
pasta dishes and to serve individual, thin-crusted pizzas taken as a main
course dish. Chinese restaurants are quite familiar in suburban areas and
small towns, as well as cities. They usually serve Cantonese and Hong
Kong–style foods and organize menus according to the French sequence
of entrée, plat, and dessert. Although the complexity, variety, sophistica-
tion, and rich history of the Chinese regional and provincial cuisines are
comparable to those of France, this is not apparent in the restaurants, by
and large undistinguished. Indian restaurants and Japanese restaurants
that mainly serve sushi rather than cooked dishes are found in the large
cities. Greek and Turkish restaurants are often informal, having open
counters that double as kebab and sandwich stands; in the Turkish
restaurants, the nuances of Ottoman cuisine are hardly in evidence.
The establishment of Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Lebanese, and
Vietnamese restaurants date to the independence of the respective colo-
nies and protectorates. Varieties of North African restaurants and tea
houses are relatively common and sometimes quite refined. Thai restau-
rants are a relatively new addition and usually have carefully annotated
menus to warn against spicy dishes, to which most French eaters are not
accustomed. Recently, new imports have further expanded the choices
especially in the larger cities, to include Tibetan food and the cuisines
of South American nations, in particular Columbia and Brazil. British or
Irish pubs and Tex-Mex restaurants can be found in the large cities and
in some university towns. Typical, if practically unknown beyond the
reaches of the urban working-class neighborhoods where they are found,
are cafés sahéliens. These are working-class cafés operated and frequented
by immigrants from Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania who came to France
starting in the 1960s and 1970s, and also by populations from Congo,
Cameroon, and Burkina.11
FAST-FOOD AND RESTAURANT CHAINS

The rapid expansion of fast-food and chain restaurants began in the
1960s. These establishments are distinguished by a formulaic list of
choices, the use of industrially prepared ingredients, and the practice
of a highly rationalized cuisine d’assemblage (“assembly cooking” rather

than preparing food from scratch, from raw ingredients). Following the
principles borrowed from the United States of Frederick Taylor and
Henry Ford, the cooking processes are broken down into simple proce-
dures that are standardized and designed for maximum efficiency. The
goal is to create products of consistent quality and that vary as little as
possible from one outlet or franchise to the next. Ingredients have been
industrially processed and prepared, freeze-dried, and vacuum packed.
In the restaurant, they undergo final stages of preparation, cooking (or
heating), and assembly. Initially, the restaurants were not popular, as the
service was brusque and impersonal or else one had to serve oneself at a
counter, and there were no real cooks. The impact and initial strange-
ness of the phenomenon to French eaters can be measured in Claude
Zidi’s film L’Aile ou la cuisse (1976), a parody of the industrialist Jacques
Borel, founder of the hospitality firm now called Accor. American chains
including McDonald’s began opening stores in France in the early 1970s,
with some adjustments to the menu including the availability of wine and
beer. There are numerous French chains and fast food restaurants, such as
Quick and Flunch.
Despite the culture of gastronomy and despite widely publicized and
occasionally violent protests against the fast food restaurants, these
eating establishments flourish. Today, fast food restaurants are ubiqui-
tous, with just under one for every eight traditional cafés or restaurants.
As of 1998, chains represented 2.5 percent of commercial restaurants,
but accounted for 20 percent of sales.12 One researcher points out that
this may be in part precisely because the fast-food chain restaurants
allow one to flaunt conventions of good taste and eating well.13 The use
of industrially prepared foods in cuisine d’assemblage has penetrated to
many traditional commercial restaurants and has led to hybrids. Res-
taurants dating to the 1960s such as the Courtepaille chain found in
roadside service areas on the national highways serve full, three-course
meals with traditional menus, on the principle that one will want to
eat a decent meal as a break from a long trip. The dishes are based on
preassembled ingredients, and the service is efficient. Fast-food pizza, or
pizzeria chains, enjoy mixed success. The largest share of the market is
divided between two American concerns, Pizza Hut and Dominos; the
success of individual franchises varies by region and adaptation to the
local population. Livraison à domicile (delivery) for pizza, introduced by
the American chains, is a late-blooming phenomenon,14 but one that has
French imitators such as Speed Rabbit Pizza.
Eating Out 133
Readying cooked carrots and peas

for service. A degree of standard-
ization is essential in nearly any
professional kitchen, whether in
a cafeteria, a fine dining establish-
ment, or a fast food restaurant.
LE FOODING AND NOVELTY RESTAURANTS

The semiologist and astute interpreter of culture Roland Barthes
observed that food can be a situation or an event. As if taking Barthes’s
observation for advice, a small but growing number of restaurants have
turned to creating establishments whose primary attraction is a nontra-
ditional ambience of one sort or another. For the last few years, Nova
magazine has been publishing a guide to fooding, a term coined by two
journalists in 1999. The noun is manufactured from the English words
“food” and “feeling.” The awkwardness of the word well conveys the
extremely unusual nature of these restaurants, in an eating culture that
has long privileged tradition, quality, and norms. Notable is the effort to
translate the primary appeal of the new establishments to one’s individual
sensations, to one’s personal experience and reactions, to one’s emotional
state. The guide to fooding does not rate for price and quality according to
the recognized grids of classical cuisine and mid–twentieth century nou-
velle cuisine. Rather, it lists nontraditional restaurants in categories that
have more to do with personal identity or lifestyle. Its categories include
restaus that are gay, bio-végét (biologique-végétarien or organic and vegetar-
ian), or that serve a “world food” cuisine, or perhaps some variety of fusion
food. The interest here is ambience and novelty. Le fooding appeals in
particular to younger people open to seeking a social experience or the
experience of a place for its own sake, as much as eating the food.
EATING OUTSIDE
The French love to eat outdoors. An unobstructed view of the sky
and a fresh breeze on the face are thought to enhance the meal, add-
ing an extra dimension of enjoyment. In the preindustrial era, workers
such as agricultural laborers often had to eat outdoors. The aristocratic
classes, on the other hand, could make a party by having tables set up in a
meadow, a shady glade, or a landscaped garden. Today, eating outside or
in an attractive natural setting is a matter of choice. Outdoor meals have
a special appeal given that the contemporary lifestyle is primarily urban
and that jobs keep people indoors and relatively sedentary. Eating outside
is felt to offer a break from the routine and doing so gives even a simple,
everyday meal a festive feeling. Terrace or courtyard tables are selling
points for restaurants and cafés during mild weather. People who have
gardens or terraces set up tables even in tiny spaces, for the pleasure of
being able to manger au dehors (eat outside). In the seventeenth century,
manger en pique-nique (to eat picnic style) meant pooling money to share
the expense of an improvised meal; the association with an outdoor meal
stabilized only in the mid-twentieth century.15 Now, during the summer,
picnics in parks are popular, as is camping, as an inexpensive mode of
taking a vacation. A picnic may be an impromptu lunch consisting of no
more than a jambon-beurre (slice of ham in buttered baguette) eaten out-
doors. Alternatively, especially in the middle and upper classes, picnics
may be quite elaborate affairs. Extensive coordination and planning are
required to unite large numbers of family members and friends in natural
locations considered to be beautiful and offering good air to breathe and
an attractive view to admire, such as in the mountains, near a river, or on
the ocean. Cooking outside usually involves grilling or barbecuing fresh
sausages and merguez. Other portable picnic foods are made in advance or
bought already prepared. Favorites include roasted or rotisserie chickens;
Eating Out 135
hard sausages to be sliced and eaten with chunks of bread; flats of summer
fruits in season such as peaches, apricots, or cherries; and bottles of wine
and mineral water. These items will be carefully packed and carried to the
ideal spot in backpacks, bags, baskets, and coolers.
During the summer on the hot, heavily frequented Mediterranean
beaches, vendors stroll up and down musically chanting the wares they
carry on flat trays: boissons fraîches (cool drinks, usually bottles of mineral
water, juice, and soda), café chaud (hot coffee), thé à la menthe (mint tea).
There are also vendors for choux-choux or peanuts made crunchy with a
praline coating, glaces (ice cream), and beignets or round jam-filled dough-
nuts covered with glinting granulated sugar. From stands set up at the
edge of the beach, one can usually buy frites and meat kebabs served in
a piece of baguette as a sandwich, with the popular option of getting the
fries right in the sandwich.
NOTES
1. Sylvie-Anne Mériot, Nostalgic Cooks: Another French Paradox, trans.
Trevor Cox and Chanelle Paul (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), 47.
2. Sandrine Blanchard, “Les Français consomment moins d’alcool et de
tabac,” Le Monde (March 9, 2006) and John Tagliabue, “The Ash May Finally Be
Falling from the Gauloise,” The New York Times (September 8, 2005).
3. Martin Breugel, “‘Un sacrifice de plus à demander au soldat:’ L’armée
et l’introduction de la boîte de conserve dans l’alimentation française,” Revue
historique 596 (October-December 1995): 260–83 and “Du temps annuel au
temps quotidien: la conserve appertisée à la conquête du marché, 1810–1920,”
Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine (January-March 1997): 40–67.
4. Bruno Laurioux, Manger au Moyen Âge (Paris: Hachette, 2002), 158.
5. Aude de Saint-Loup, Yves Delaporte, and Marc Renard, Gestes des moines,
regard des sourds (Nantes: Siloë, 1997).
6. Mériot, 36.
7. Fabrice Laroulandière, Les Ouvriers de Paris au XIXe siècle (Paris: Christian,
1997), 115–16.
8. Julia Csergo, “La constitution de la spécialité gastronomique comme
objet patrimonial en France, fin XVIIIe-XXe siècle,” pp. 183–93 in Daniel
J. Grange and Dominique Poulot, eds., L’Esprit des lieux (Grenoble: Presses
Universitaires de Grenoble, 1997).
9. Claude Fischler, L’Homnivore (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990), 209.
10. Isabelle Garabuau-Moussaoui, “L’exotique est-il quotidien? Dynamiques
de l’exotique et générations,” pp. 281–306 in Isabelle Garabuau-Moussaoui, Elise
Palomares, and Dominique Desjeux, eds., Alimentations contemporaines (Paris:
L’Harmattan, 2002).
11. Pascal Hug, “Cafés sahéliens de Paris: Stratégies de ‘gestions du ventre’

dans un espace de manducation,” pp. 145–71 in Garabuau-Moussaoui, Palomares,
and Desjeux.
12. B. Boutboul and A. Lacourtiade, “Étude chaînes 1998” (Paris: GIRA-SIC
Conseil, April 1999), 2.
13. Olivier Badot, “Esquisse de la fonction sociale de McDonald’s à partir
d’une étude éthnographique,” pp. 83–121 in Garabuau-Moussaoui, Palomares,
and Desjeux.
14. Sylvia Sanchez, “ ‘La pizza dans le pays des autres,’ ” pp. 123–41 in
Garabuau-Moussaoui, Palomares, and Desjeux.
15. Julia Csergo, “The Picnic in Nineteenth-Century France,” pp. 139–59
in Marc Jacobs and Peter Scholliers, eds., Eating Out in Europe (Oxford: Berg,
2003).
6
Special Occasions
The care, interest, and enjoyment that so many people bring every day to
cooking and eating bring a bit of holiday reverence and revelry to nearly any
meal. This is typical savoir-vivre (knowing how to live well) applied at the
table, on a daily basis. A holiday atmosphere certainly prevails for the Sun-
day lunch with family and at the dinner party given on a Friday or Saturday
evening for a few close friends. Of the 11 days mandated as federal holidays,
a few are secular commemorations such as Bastille Day (July 14). The rest,
such as Christmas (December 24–25), derive from Catholic religious obser-
vances historically connected with fasting. These holidays are now feasts,
and most people celebrate them in a secular fashion. Within families and
circles of friends, there is a strong emphasis on celebrating personal days such
as birthdays. Parties, of course, are simply fun, but it is also recognized that
participation in shared festivities socializes children, sustains family relation-
ships, and ensures the integration of individuals into communities. Since the
1990s a trend to revive traditional agricultural and regional celebrations has
served to affirm local identity and preserve the sense of history.
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

The holidays having a religious origin and that are observed by the
greatest number of people in France derive from the Catholic liturgi-
cal calendar. That said, most people today celebrate holidays such as
Noël (Christmas), observed on December 24 with the next day a holiday
from work, in a secular fashion. The family celebration is a treat much

anticipated by children, who like the sapin or tree decorated with lights
that is mounted in the living room, as well as the festive foods and gifts.
December 24 was a fasting day in the Catholic calendar. Abstinence
from all food was in principle required until after the midnight mass.
One broke the fast at the réveillon (late meal after mass; from réveiller, to
wake up) with fish, vegetables, and grains, but no meat. From the eccle-
siastical requirement for a lean meal, and because of seasonal availabil-
ity, baked or roasted salmon, stockfisch (dried cod) for modest tables, or
turbot for the wealthy were typical. Fish, especially salmon, is now eaten
throughout the year, and the former fasts have become secular feasts.
People refer to the Christmas Eve meal as le gros souper (the big dinner).
The old lean dishes are thus replaced on the holiday table by festive
foods that suggest prosperity but are now within reach of many wallets.
Oysters and foie gras are favorite appetizers. Roasted turkey stuffed with
chestnuts is a standard main course. Good wines are saved for the occa-
sion, and Champagne accompanies dessert.
Almost nothing is more typical than drinking sparkling wine for fes-
tive occasions, although the tradition is of recent vintage. Through the
Platters of raw oysters and steamed mussels, clams, and shrimp set out for the
first course of the Christmas meal. Courtesy of Hervé Depoil.
Special Occasions 139
end of the eighteenth century, sparkling wine was rare and drunk by the
very wealthy. The carbonation was not sought (nor added by the monk
Dom Perignon, whose aptitude as a vintner is mythical) but was rather
the result of a happy accident in wine-making.1 Cold weather halted
fermentation of the sugars before it was complete. In the spring, chemical
changes resumed with warm weather, producing carbon dioxide, as well as
alcohol. During the nineteenth century, careful cultivation and scientific
modes of production made sparkling wines more plentiful. Clever mar-
keting transformed Champagne into an essential feature of important
celebrations. Sparkling wines can be made wherever wine grapes are
grown, but the greatest prestige attaches to the finest bottles from the
Champagne region.
Since the late nineteenth century, the Christmas meal finishes with
a bûche de Noël or cake in the shape of the fruit-wood Yule log that was
placed on the fire as a symbol of plenty. The cake for the bûche starts as
a flat rectangle made from a light batter containing eggs but little or no
butter. The baked sponge is spread with a jam glaze, rolled, then frosted
with chocolate butter-cream. Chocolate shavings resembling tree bark,
baked meringue toadstools, a sprinkling of powdered sugar to suggest
snow, and a few holly leaves imaginatively transform the cake into a log
plucked from the woods. The adventurous make their own bûches, but it
is common to order one from a pâtissier. Other winter desserts that appear
around Christmas and New Year’s are chocolate truffles, fruit pastes,
and regional specialties such as the Germanic Christollen (Stollen)—a
dry, buttery yeasted cake studded with candied fruits and decorated with
powdered sugar eaten in Alsace—and Spéculoos (spice cookies of Flemish
origin) common in Picardie and Pas-de-Calais. Those who do attend the
midnight service on Christmas Eve often divide up the meal, saving only
cake and wine for the réveillon after mass. Children put out their shoes
near a fireplace or a crèche (nativity scene) in the hopes that they will be
filled with gifts. As in the United States, Christmas is heavily commer-
cialized, and children now expect toys, electronic games, bicycles, and so
on, as presents. For this reason the old tradition of giving gifts to children
for la Saint-Nicolas (the feast of St. Nicholas, patron saint of children, on
December 6) has been somewhat eclipsed. For St. Nicholas’s Day the tra-
ditional gifts were pains d’épices or spice bread flavored with honey, cloves,
and cinnamon; marzipan confections; and oranges and nuts.
In Provence, foods for Christmas Eve dinner may still reflect the regional
staples and the custom of eating a repas maigre or meatless lean meal. Snails,
aïoli (garlicky mayonnaise) or anchoïade (anchovies pounded with bread
crumbs, olive oil, and lemon juice) with artichoke hearts; salt cod; and
winter vegetables including chard and cardoons figure on the Christmas

table. The meal often begins with a simple, flavorful aïgo-boulido (Occitan
for “boiled water,” actually a far more tasty garlic soup). The soup is also
recommended as a cure-all for colds and aches and as a soothing restor-
ative in case of gastronomic excess or hangover at any time of year.
Garlic Soup (Aïgo-boulido)

• 8 cloves garlic
• 5 cups water
• 1 sprig fresh sage
• 1 bay leaf
• salt
• 3 very fresh egg yolks
• pepper
• 4 slices of bread, lightly grilled or toasted
• 3/4 cup of grated hard cheese such as Gruyère, aged Cantal, or
Parmesan
Crush the garlic with your hand or with the side of a knife and peel it. If the
garlic is at all dry, slice it in half lengthwise and remove the green germ,
using the tip of a knife.
Put the garlic, water, sage, bay leaf, salt to taste, and water in a pot. Bring
the mixture to the boil, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Pour
in the olive oil.
In the bottom of a soup tureen or large serving bowl, gently beat the egg
yolks with a wooden spoon, just to mix.
Pour a ladleful of the boiled broth and garlic mixture onto the eggs and
whisk together, then pour on the rest of the broth. Grind fresh black
pepper to taste onto the soup.
To serve, place a slice of toasted bread in the bottom of each soup bowl.
Divide the cheese among the four bowls, sprinkling it on top of the
bread. Ladle on the soup and serve piping hot.
The Provençal Christmas meal concludes with 13 desserts, thought to

symbolize the 12 months of the year plus the petit mois (little month) com-
posed of the 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany. Another explanation
matches a dessert each to Christ and the 12 apostles. Either vin cuit (wine
with macerated fruit such as oranges) or chilled sweet wine accompanies
the selection of desserts: fresh fruits such as oranges, tangerines, or apples;
dried fruits and nuts such as raisins, dates, figs, almonds, hazelnuts, and
walnuts; confections such as candied chestnuts, candied almonds, and
light and dark nougats with nuts; and pastries such as spinach tart made
with olive oil or butter, sugar and lemon peel, or a lightly sweetened chard
tart. A whole melon carefully candied in syrup over two weeks at the end
of summer may appear as the crown jewel of the holiday sweet spread. An
indispensable element is the plain pompe à l’huile, gibassier, or fougasse, a
lightly sweetened bread enriched with olive oil and flavored with orange
flower water or anise. The name pompe à l’huile for the festive bread evokes
the pomp and circumstance of the holiday celebration. With a pun it also
literally means “oil pump,” a description that is not inaccurate.
Christmas Bread (Pompe à l’huile, Pompe de Noël)

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 5 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 3 tablespoons orange flower water
In a medium-size mixing bowl, stir together the yeast and warm water.
Using a wire whisk, mix in 1 cup of the flour to make a smooth batter.
Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let the sponge batter sit over-
night, up to 24 hours.
The next day, mix 3 cups flour, salt, sugar, and orange zest together in a
large bowl. Make a well in the center, then pour in the orange flower
water, olive oil, and the sponge from the previous day. Using a spatula or
wooden spoon, stir the flour into the liquids, incorporating it gradually
first from the center and then from the edge of the bowl, until the
mixture is fairly uniform.
Lightly flour a work surface, turn the dough out from the bowl, and knead
for a few minutes until the dough is smoothly elastic and no longer
sticky. As you knead, sprinkle on a bit of additional flour, as necessary,
if the dough is sticky.
Form the kneaded dough into a ball. Place it back in the mixing bowl.
Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel. Place the bowl in a warm spot
in your kitchen, and allow to rise for about 2 hours, until doubled in
volume.
Punch the dough down, then turn it out of the bowl onto the work surface,
and divide it into four. Use your hands to flatten, turn over, and pull
the dough, shaping each piece into a flat, round disk. If necessary, use
a rolling pin to flatten the dough, so that the disks are about 1/2-inch
thick.
Lightly grease two baking sheets, then place the disks two by two on the
sheets. Use a clean razor blade or very thin, sharp, pointed knife to score
the surface of the breads in a checkerboard pattern. Cut parallel lines
into the dough about 1/4-inch deep and at intervals of 1 inch, then
make perpendicular cuts. Cover the breads with towels, and leave for
the final rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.
Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, until golden brown and crusty. When they
are done, they will sound hollow if you tap the bottom with your fingers.
Cool completely on wire racks before eating.
To serve, bring the breads whole to the table and break off square chunks
where they are scored.
Makes four loaves about 8 inches in diameter.
Épiphanie or la fête des Rois commemorates the manifestation (épiphanie)

of the infant Jesus to the Magi. To mark the day people eat the galette des
Rois or gâteau des Rois (“kings’ cake” or Twelfth Night pastry), which is in
the shape of a crown. The simplest version is plain flat puff pastry glazed
with egg. A lightly sweetened, thick almond custard is usually spread
between two layers of puff paste. In the South, the galette can be a yeast-
leavened pain brioché or dough enriched with eggs and also butter. This
is baked into a round disk or a ring whose center is filled with cherries or
prunes. A fève (dried bean), whole almond, or porcelain trinket is tucked
into the paste or dough before it is baked. While the cake is being served,
the youngest child in the room gets to hide under the table and to ask
the question: Who will be the king? The evening requires having a gilt
cardboard couronne (crown) in reserve. The person whose piece of pastry
contains the fève—referred to as such even if the object is not a bean—is
crowned king or queen. Near the winter solstice, Epiphany occasioned
festival debauchery, and noisy bibbers chose a king from among their own
numbers. Today, January 6 is given as a holiday. It is a quiet family gath-
ering or a good excuse to get together with friends for a more relaxed
evening than the rigorous celebrations of the preceding couple of weeks.
As with most holidays, customs for Epiphany are now largely secular and
family-oriented. Throughout January, bakeries supply galette to the steady
stream of buyers. People eat several galettes through the course of the
month with family groups and with friends.
Rich pancakes and pastries feature in the end-of-winter holidays that

preceded the Lenten fast in the Catholic calendar. Crêpes are traditional
for la Chandeleur (Candlemas or Candle Festival) observed on February
2. In recollection of the presentation of Christ in the temple and the
purification of the Virgin Mary, people went to church to have a candle
blessed; the candle was lighted at auspicious moments during the rest of
year for good luck. In rural areas, February 2 was also the day for attempt-
ing to predict how long winter weather would continue. This was done
by observing animals in their lairs, to see whether they showed any signs
of emerging from hibernation. Today, little ceremony outside of regular
family meal customs marks the day. The crêpes are eaten rolled up with a
bit of sugar, spread with jam such as apricot or cherry, or filled with a purée
of fresh fruit. In the port city of Marseille, people eat golden-brown butter
cookies called navettes (boats), shaped as their name suggests. The dough
is patted into large, fat, almond shapes that are scored down the middle,
so the cookies puff out while baking.
For mardi gras (Fat or Shrove Tuesday), the last day before the start
of Carême (Lent) on mercredi saint (Ash Wednesday), people eat rich
desserts made with milk and eggs, and plenty of butter or oil. Beignets
(doughnuts), bugnes or oreillettes (knotted or twisted strips of dough
that are fried), pancakes, and crêpes are typical. Historically, not only
rich foods but also an orgiastic period of revelry directly preceded Lent.
Carnaval (from the Latin carnem levare, i.e., enlever les viandes or to
take away meats) lasted the weekend or entire week, ending with mardi
gras. Through the mid-twentieth century, Carnival parades and proces-
sions were often quite elaborate. The celebration in Nice was especially
famous. For months beforehand, people prepared floats and masks for
the festive procession, which was accompanied by showers of flower
petals. Carnival included the ludic selection of a king and queen who
presided over a Feast of Fools, and the ritual battle between Carnaval
and Carême—or standoff between the Fat and the Lean—was a big food
fight pitting sausages, meats, and fowl against the fish and vegetables.
The medieval fable Aucassin et Nicolette (ca. 1225) has a mild version
in a topsy-turvy carnival atmosphere, with the characters slinging rot-
ten crab apples, large prairie mushrooms, and fresh cheeses.2 The wild,
sometimes violent play and the disguises for Carnival made free with
the usual social order. The commoner king and queen were an invented,
festival aristocracy that mocked the exclusions based on bloodlines long
key to privilege in the everyday world. Social theorists and historians
have observed that turning le monde à l’envers (the world upside-down)
through festivals such as Carnival doubtless released tensions that might
otherwise manifest in a much more destructive fashion. The extraordi-

nary scenes of parades and costumes, eating and drinking, in the pictures
of the Niç ois artist Gustav-Adolf Mossa suggest the months of careful
preparation that went into Carnival. They also show just how big the
blowout was.
After Carnival one was probably only too glad to withdraw into the
asceticism of the sainte quarantaine or Carême (from the Latin quadrag-
esima or fortieth day). The 40 lean days anticipating Easter recall Christ’s
fast in the desert and struggle against diabolical temptation. The period
also resonates with the 40 days of the flood, the 40 years of the reign of
King David, and so on, in the Old Testament. In today’s secular, demo-
cratic society, with its paid holidays and personal celebrations, Carnival
has declined to the status of a minor tourist attraction, and few people
observe the old Lenten dietary restrictions, much less for the full 40 days.
However, people enjoy the rich desserts on Fat Tuesday, and some eat fish
on Ash Wednesday and on Lenten Fridays.
Pâques (Easter), marking the resurrection of Christ and symbolized by a
spring lamb, is celebrated with roast lamb, blanquette d’agneau (white stew
made with lamb), or, on Corsica and in some southern cities, roasted or
stewed kid goat. Children receive chocolates and candies in the shape of
fish, eggs, chickens, and rabbits to suggest life and seasonal renewal. Hard
boiled eggs are put in salads and baked whole in dishes finished in the
oven; eggs are mixed up into omelets, and they enrich breads and cakes
such as the rich pain de Pâques (Easter bread) from the Vendée called alise
pacaude.
November 11, la Saint-Martin, traditionally closed the harvest season
and marked the end of agricultural work for the year, with a thanksgiving
meal of roast goose and new wine. Today, the federal holiday on the same
day, la fête de l’Armistice commemorating the armistice of 1918, is as likely
to be in people’s thoughts.
NEW YEAR’S
If Christmas and the winter religious holidays are spent with family,
la fête de Saint-Sylvestre or New Year’s Eve is usually spent with friends.
The meal is as elegant as possible, with many of the festive foods typical
for Christmas: oysters, foie gras, a roast goose or turkey, a roast beef, a
ham. The réveillon (late meal) usually lasts at least until midnight, when
corks pop and people drink a glass of Champagne to bring in the New
Year. Municipal feux d’artifices (fireworks) are common, and people set
off noisy pétards (firecrackers) and light sparklers. On the jour de l’An
(New Year’s Day), a holiday from work, friends exchange étrennes or little
gifts to inaugurate the coming year. January 1 is also the day for tipping
mail carriers, merchants, and other people whom one sees throughout the
year, but who are outside the close circles of family and friends.
PERSONAL EVENTS
Even among the large population of nonbelievers, it is fairly common
to observe the sacramental rituals of church christenings for babies and
first communions for older children. After the church ceremonies, the
parents offer a festive lunch or dinner to family members, the godparents,
and close friends. Essential for both occasions and also for weddings are a
pièce montée and dragées. The pièce montée or pastry “set piece” is a care-
fully constructed dessert designed to dazzle the eyes as well as the palate.
The classic pastry set piece is the conical croquembouche (“crunches in
the mouth”). Choux fourrés, profiteroles or round pastry puffs filled with
vanilla custard, are layered and stacked up (montés) into a tall pyramid.
The pastry tower is drizzled with caramel that hardens to a shiny gleam
and adds texture contrast. The cone shape is always considered appropri-
ate and attractive, but imaginative pâtissiers also make puff pastry swans,
flowers, cars, and so on, which can then be filled with cream.
The festive pastry set pieces, along with sugar sculptures, can be traced
to the aristocratic tables of the medieval and renaissance eras. The showy
desserts—tours de force that required a large kitchen staff and luxury ingre-
dients including sugar—were status symbols that accrued prestige to the
host. In the early nineteenth century, the chef Marie-Antoine Carême,
who first trained as a pâtissier and was fascinated by architecture, found
great play for his creativity in the pièce montée, treated in his illustrated
books Le pâtissier royal parisien (1815) and Le pâtissier pittoresque (1815 and
1854). Even for the most complex design, such as an elegantly realized
shady grotto or neoclassical façade, Carême insisted that all parts be
edible. Now a pièce montée made out of puff pastry is an integral element
to middle class and upper middle class celebrations. They are fairly costly
and almost always ordered from a baker.
Distributing sachets of dragées (from the Greek tragêmata, sweetmeats)
or sugar-coated almonds as favors to guests at weddings and baptisms is
a custom with ancient roots. The Greeks and Romans ate honey-coated
nuts, understood as symbols of fecundity. Medieval apothecaries dis-
tributed honey-coated spices such as coriander and fennel as medicinal
breath fresheners and aids to digestion. Since the Renaissance, sugar has
been used to coat spices for comfits and nuts for dragées. Today the pièce
Caterer Farnier’s shop window in Blanzy advertises

cooking for “All Receptions: Family Meals, Anniversaries,
Baptisms, Communions, Marriages, Banquets, Buffets,
Cocktails, Apéritifs, Business Meals, Inaugurations.”
Courtesy of Janine Depoil.
montée is often decorated with a few dragées, usually white or silver for a
wedding or baptism.
Weddings, also traditionally a religious sacrament, are today usually
secular family occasions. In either case, as in the United States, middle
class and upper middle class wedding parties are carefully choreographed
affairs that may involve a weekend-long party and great expense. The
bride selects a gown. The couple chooses rings. A site for the party must
be found and rented. Formal invitations must be printed and sent. There
are meetings with florists and caterers to plan the decorations and meals.
Although most couples live together before marrying and have fully
functioning households, people sign up for the listes de mariage (registry)
to orchestrate the gifts that are given, with the most common requests
being new sets of plates, glasses, and cutlery along with additions for the
kitchen. The wedding meal is designed according to the couples’ tastes,
but is on the scope of a banquet. A series of four or five or six courses
includes potage, entrée, plat (or sometimes two, with fish and then meat),
salad, and cheese. Wedding foods tend to be high-status items that are
presented as elegantly as possible, even for a so-called menu champêtre
(rustic or country menu). Menus often include foie gras, lobster, roasted
monkfish, boned and stuffed fowl such as Guinea hen or capon. Dessert is
the obligatory coupe de Champagne and spectacular pièce montée, although

some couples choose a gâteau à étages or layer cake.
In addition to full-on weddings, parties to celebrate personal relation-
ships assume many forms, from a gathering of friends and family at a
favorite restaurant, to an evening party given at the home that already
has been established. It is quite common for couples to live together
without marrying and to start families. About 30 percent of children are
born outside of wedlock; sometimes the parents decide to marry later on.
Some marry at the local town hall but forego the religious celebration
and traditional wedding. Since 1999, others marry through the PACS or
pacte civil de solidarité, a civil alliance available both to heterosexual and
to homosexual couples. Couples celebrate anniversaries with each other,
perhaps with a romantic dinner out, but give large parties for important
milestones such as the 25th and 50th anniversaries.
After a funeral, the bereaved family traditionally offers a collation or
luncheon to their guests.
BIRTHDAYS
Before the 1950s, individuals quietly observed their name days
according to the Catholic calendar with its commemorations of the deaths
and ascensions of the various saints. Now the Anglo-Saxon custom of
celebrating one’s own anniversaire or jour annniversaire (birthday) pre-
vails. For children, afternoon parties announced with written invitations
enlarge on the four o’clock goûter, the regular afternoon snack. Entertain-
ing savories such as oeufs durs farcis (stuffed hard-cooked eggs), stuffed
tomatoes, crêpes garnished with an egg or piece of ham, or croque-monsieur
(hot ham sandwiches pressed flat in an iron) may be offered first. The
birthday cake is usually a plain cake that will appeal to children, such as a
white or chocolate cake with chocolate icing. The cake is brought to the
table studded with lit candles that the birthday person tries to blow out in
one great breath. Avoided by many parents because of the sugar content,
soft drinks are considered a great treat by children, and they are served
for the exceptional occasion of the birthday. Sparkling apple juice called
champomi (from Champagne and pomme for “apple champagne”) is also
popular. Family members and the child’s godparents attend, along with
other children, and all bring a gift. For the family meal, the favorite foods
of the birthday person often figure on the menu.
Adults give their own birthday parties, and there is strong social pres-
sure to stage parties for friends and family, who reciprocate by giving
gifts. Since 1974, when the majorité was lowered from 21, the eighteenth
Carrying the birthday cake from

kitchen into dining room. Courtesy
of Nadine Leick.
birthday marks the passage into adulthood. At 18 one can vote, drive,
and drink alcoholic beverages legally. Older teenagers are usually quite
accustomed to drinking small amounts of wine as a part of the family meal
and alcohols in the form of an apéritif. The right to purchase alcohol at
age 18 is essentially a formality, rather than a rite of passage. Other impor-
tant birthdays are the 25th, for the quarter-century, and then the decade
markers. The 60th birthday often coincides with a retirement party, an
occasion to celebrate an entire career.
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

To mark achievements at school and work, people invite colleagues
and teachers, family and friends, to a ceremonial apéritif or pot (drink).
A vernissage or gallery opening, or a gathering of business partners and
colleagues, may be the occasion for a cocktail, whose name borrows from the
American cocktail party. Since the 1970s, a vin d’honneur, with speeches
and toasts to accompany the lifting of glasses, takes place at weddings
before the dinner. At business or academic conferences, a vin d’honneur
may be drunk in tribute to an important speaker or guest, with canapés (light

appetizers) to accompany the glass of wine, Champagne, or kir, before
dinner. The verb arroser means “to water” or “to sprinkle” and by meta-
phorical, argotic extension to celebrate with a drink. A person who has
just passed an important examination, defended a doctoral thesis, or even
bought a new car invites family and friends to an arrosage.
HOUSE-WARMING PARTIES
People who have just moved into a new house or apartment invite
guests to pendre la crémaillère. The phrase recalls the ceremony of hanging
a rack or trammel in the chimney to hold the stock-pot over the fire. This
done, one could cook, making the house inhabitable. People usually give
parties with a buffet for the pendaison de la crémaillère, both to inaugurate
the new place, and to make family and friends feel welcome. Foods are
selected according to personal taste and the ease with which they can be
served and then eaten from small plates as people circulate around the
party. Common buffet items include platters of artfully arranged crudités
or charcuterie, bouchées de fromage or savory baked puffs filled with a bit of
cheese, salads of greens or grated carrots, hachis parmentier or shepherd’s
pie, slices of roast beef served at room temperature, a stew such as a south-
ern daube or North African tagine, fruit salad, wedges of apple tart, and
slices of quatre quarts (pound cake) or chocolate cake.
BASTILLE DAY
Le Quatorze juillet, or le jour de la Bastille (July 14), is the national
holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris at the
start of the Revolution of 1789. Only a handful of prisoners were found,
but the riot symbolized release from the oppressive shackles of the ancien
régime social and political orders. Bastille Day brings tremendous collec-
tive celebrations. Cities and towns organize fireworks, défilés (parades),
and outdoor concerts and dancing. The immense Paris parade is always
televised. Other spectacular events include the fireworks off the pictur-
esque Pont d’Avignon, which dramatically breaks off halfway across the
Rhône River. Families and community groups such as volunteer firemen,
military veterans, and hunting clubs set up the outdoor barbecue for une
grillade, a mixed grill that might include merguez, steaks, and lamb chops.
For fun, people improvise foods with the bleu blanc rouge (blue, white,
and red) of the flag: cocktails made with layers of strawberry syrup on the
bottom, and then mixed vodka and anisette, and finally Curaç ao; scallops
garnished with reddish-orange salmon eggs to be served on a bright blue

plate; and desserts of blueberries, fruits rouges (raspberries, strawberries,
cherries), and cream or fromage blanc.
Since the 1980s, events now staged annually such as Youth Day, Gay
Pride (also called Euro-Pride or la Marche des fiertés), and the Techno
Parade have the proportions and feelings of civic festivals, with parades,
music, and plenty of eating, drinking, and revelry out of doors. As in many
countries, sporting events such as soccer matches—a national passion—
the Tour de France bicycle race, and marathons similarly offer something
of the collective holiday experience.
TRADITIONAL LOCAL AND REGIONAL FESTIVALS

In recent years a great effort has been made to continue or revive
traditional regional and agricultural celebrations. Most villages and small
towns have a fête votive, fête patronale, fête du pays, or kermesse celebrating
the town’s patron saint. The festivals usually take place during the warm
months, from May through October. They are fixed to a Sunday closest
to the saint’s day, and last a weekend or three days. The festivals often
were tied to a communal activity for farming, such as planting, harvest-
ing, or threshing, and many have ancient pagan roots. Today, there is
great appreciation for the fêtes votives and also fêtes folkloriques, as they
are thought to preserve and teach about local customs including dress,
regional styles of dancing, and gastronomic specialties. For a fête patronale
or other local occasion, a special mass may be observed in the town
church, and vendors set up outdoor markets and flea markets in the main
street or square.
Other festivals revived largely since the early 1990s are the May and
December fêtes de la transhumance. It was customary to drive cows, sheep,
and goats up to high ground for summer grazing. The descent back down
to lower meadows and plains then followed the harvests. Today, trucks
usually move the cattle, but the transhumance festivals are popular again
especially in the late fall, when local cheeses made with the summer’s rich
milk can be sold. The fêtes des vendanges or des moissons or d’abondance were
feasts offered to harvesters to thank them for their work and celebrate the
year’s bounty. New versions commemorate the old agricultural calendar
and artisanal methods of work. The festivals are of great historical interest
and are good for tourism. In recent years, they have also become vehicles
for a certain revivalist, nationalist sentiment nostalgic for la vieille France;
“old” here means Catholic France.
Demonstrating the mechanics of a wine

press, in Grimaud. Courtesy of Janine
Depoil.
On a larger scale, city or regional fêtes are often associated with a

special cultural practice, although some of these are of modern vintage.
Highlights of the festivals vary according to region. In Nîmes there is
bull-fighting, although the bull is never killed, as in Spain. The inter-
national film festival takes place each May at Cannes, the theater festi-
val in July in Avignon, and operas are staged throughout the summer in
the Roman theatre at Orange. Organized on the model of these cultural
festivals, newer fêtes gourmandes organized to promote the patrimoine have
flourished in recent years. Local restaurateurs, producers, and the munici-
pal authorities collaborate to stage fairs that focus on local produce, from
chestnuts to wine. Manifestations gastronomiques or gastronomic events
take many forms, such as a tournée des restaurants where people make the
rounds of participating restaurants to sample local dishes.
Foires (fairs) have a carnival atmosphere like that of an amusement park.
Foires or fêtes foraines formerly were associated with yearly outdoor mar-
kets (marchés forains) visited by itinerant merchants and traders. Today,
the foires are heavily commercialized. Itinerant carnival workers set up
lotteries, games, and rides. Vendors sell grilled merguez placed lengthwise
in a piece of baguette, barbes à papa (“dad’s beard” i.e., spun sugar cotton
Alain Gontard’s restaurant in La Pacaudière announces an “open table” as part of

the local gastronomic festival. The restaurant specializes in duck cookery includ-
ing foie gras de canard. Courtesy of Christian Verdet/regard public-unpact.
candy), nougats, spice bread, waffles, guimauves (marshmallows), and the

adored chichi, a long, flat beignet made of yeast dough flavored with orange-
flower water and sprinkled with granulated sugar.
The mercantile aspect of the old foires is recalled in today’s salons and
expositions for producers of wine and brandies. These can be quite fancy
affairs with a busy boutique atmosphere. Their attraction is increased by
the fact that an invitation card is required for entry and tasting.
NEW HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

Since the 1990s, American customs associated with Halloween on
October 31 have been heavily commercialized, and Halloween is now
quite popular among children. Adults have had mixed reactions, finding
the macabre emphasis on ghosts and skeletons unappealing, but children
love wearing costumes and masks, carving citrouilles (pumpkins), and
receiving sweets. Halloween celebrations have for the moment overshad-
owed la Toussaint (All Saints’ Day, November 1), a traditional religious
holiday, today one of the federal holidays.
Also modeled after American counterparts are the fête des Pères (Father’s
Day), instituted in 1949 as the third Sunday in June, and the fête des Mères
(Mother’s Day), the last Sunday in May. These days are celebrated with
a festive family meal. The other spouse and the children offer gifts and
either do the cooking or treat everybody to an evening out.
NOTES
1. Kolleen M. Guy, When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making
of a National Identity (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003),
28–9.
2. “Il avoient aportés/des fromage[s] fres assés/et puns de bos waumonés/et
grans canpegneus canpés.” Aucassin et Nicolette (ca. 1225), ed. Jean Dufournet
(Paris: Flammarion, 1984), canto 31.
7
Diet and Health
Abundance and variety have characterized the diet in France since the end
of the Second World War. Across economic classes, the French associate
taking the full three-course meal with a sense of well-being and with being
in good health. The structured family meal provides nutritional balance
and conditions daily eating for most people, while contributing to the
quality of life that is so highly valued. As in other affluent nations, how-
ever, abundance, the modern lifestyle, and contemporary agricultural and
manufacturing practices also create dietary dilemmas. For some, grignotage
(snacking) replaces or augments the cycle of three daily meals. Problems
related to overconsumption, such as obesity, are on the rise. Genetically
modified foods and agribusiness practices are perceived as threats to
a healthy diet. At present, the widely felt need for precautionary and
protective measures shapes the response to matters of diet and health.
BALANCE, MODERATION, AND PLEASURE

The variety of foods that is now available to the broadest swathe of the
population has not always been a feature of the diet. In rural areas, bread,
legumes, and vegetables from the kitchen garden had been the building
blocks of daily meals. Animal protein was likely to be in the form of eggs,
milk, or cheese, although meat consumption varied by region. In cities,
meat consumption increased substantially during the nineteenth century,
but prices fluctuated and the best cuts were quite expensive. During the
Occupation of the 1940s, farmers sent their best meat and dairy prod-
ucts off to the German Reich. Rationing at home allowed for only 1,200
calories per day by 1943, and life expectancy dropped drastically during
the Vichy years. As recently as the mid-twentieth century, hunger and
diseases that result from dietary deficiencies had not been eradicated.
Affluence and modernization associated with the Trente glorieuses or
Thirty Glorious Years of rebuilding after the war resulted in significant
changes. In 1962, under the PAC or Politique agricole commune (CAP or
Common Agricultural Policy), the European Union began giving massive
subventions to French grain, dairy, and beef farmers. The purpose of the
assistance was to guarantee a stable food supply. Using PAC funds, farm-
ers adopted modern industrial techniques. Overproduction and a reliable,
inexpensive supply of beef, dairy products, and grains made the earlier
shortages and fluctuations a thing of the past.
Today the centerpiece of most middle class meals in France is meat,
whether beef, pork, charcuterie, lamb, or fowl. Dairy products, including
milk, eggs, and fresh and aged cheeses are very important. Yogurt, which
has been heavily marketed as a healthy way to “eat milk,” is popular. A
wide variety of fruits and vegetables are eaten, including raw salads and
crudités. Bread retains a strong symbolic importance, but consumption has
declined in favor of animal proteins and fresh produce. The use of but-
ter, animal fats such as lard and goose fat, and vegetable oils used to vary
largely by region. At present, the broad preference for cooking with veg-
etable oils such as sunflower oil stems from their lower prices, on the one
hand, and information about health benefits associated with unsaturated
vegetable oils and the Mediterranean diet, on the other. Wine was long
viewed as a healthy, strengthening beverage and in this sense was seen
as quite distinct from distilled alcohols. Despite this perception, rates of
alcoholism and diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver were high through
the mid-twentieth century. The view that wine is healthful has not disap-
peared, but consumption of wine has declined.1
The benefits of eating the full three-course family meal are thought of
in a holistic fashion. The American practices of counting calories and
weighing portions would seem quite strange to most people. Eating a
variety of fresh foods is more generally understood as key to une bonne
nutrition or une alimentation saine (good nutrition, a diet that is healthy),
and variety is precisely what characterizes the full meal with its comple-
ment of three or four different dishes. Nutrition is only part of the recipe,
however. Culinary quality and sensual appreciation of food are essential
to the perception that one is eating well. Conviviality and social con-
nection, eating in the company of friends or family, are equally necessary
Diet and Health 157
ingredients. Similarly, the respite from the activities of the day imposed
by the slow rhythm of the full meal, cannot be discounted.2 Spending
time at table and taking pleasure in eating are as important as what is
eaten. People use the terms équilibre (balance), modération (moderation),
and plaisir (enjoyment) to name the salient features of eating well and har-
monieuses (harmonious) to describe the ensemble of practices that go into
eating well. The sense of pleasure and balance guide the practical aspects
of cooking and serving daily meals, such as determining the relatively
small portion sizes for individual components of a meal.
THE FRENCH PARADOX

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, American and French researchers
identified a phenomenon they named the French Paradox, which re-
ceived extensive coverage in the media. The French, it was observed,
regularly drank wine and ate all sorts of foods rich in animal fats, such
as cheeses and butter. Relative to Americans, northern Europeans, and
the British, they had comparable or higher cholesterol levels, yet lower
mortality rates from cardiovascular and coronary diseases. The very lowest
rates of coronary disease were measured in the southwestern Languedoc
region, famous for foie gras and rib-sticking cassoulet, the baked meat and
Enjoying a good meal and a glass of wine with friends contributes to quality of life
and good health à la française. Courtesy of Christian Verdet/regard public-unpact.
bean stew that is generously enriched with goose or duck fat.3 Here, then,
was a people eating a dangerously delicious diet, yet enjoying good health.
How was this contradiction to be explained?
Various answers have been proposed to explain the so-called paradox.
Moderate consumption of wine or other alcohols can play a role in coun-
teracting the effects of cholesterol. Other factors are important, as well.
The French diet is varied. It includes relatively high proportions of fruits,
vegetables, grains, and legumes, in addition to meats, cheese, and wine.
Compared with their American equivalents, portion sizes in restaurants,
homes, stores, and recipes are small. People spend more time at table for
meals, yet they eat less. The rituals of serving and sharing food and of
politeness such as finishing up at about the same time as one’s table com-
panions, tend to prevent one from eating too much. Mealtime is strongly
associated with relaxation, socializing, and enjoyment.4 Physical activi-
ties such as walking have a larger place in people’s daily routines. Nearly
universal access to high quality health care through the national sécurité
sociale (social security) and emphasis on preventive care contribute to the
health of the population. (Lifespan for women is more than 83 years, the
longest in Europe.) Each of these elements in the diet and lifestyle plays a
role in maintaining health.
PREGNANCY, BIRTH, AND BREASTFEEDING

Women expecting babies are notorious for having sudden, strong envies
(cravings), but a régime équilibré (balanced diet) is the order of the day.
The health insurance system guarantees women prenatal care, including
a minimum of five required prenatal visits to the doctor, a hospital stay
that lasts four to five days under normal circumstances at the time of the
birth, and 10 weeks of paid maternity leave from their jobs. Midwives
commonly deliver babies. In case of any complication, a doctor is called.
Pregnancy is not seen as an infirmity, but rather as an enhanced state of
health and femininity. Doctors discourage women from putting on too
much extra weight during pregnancy, as this is seen as self-indulgent and
quite unnecessary. Making minor adjustments to the diet in response to
the changing state of the body during pregnancy is recommended, how-
ever. Mineral waters with a high magnesium content are useful against
the common problem of constipation, for instance. Beyond the constant
admonition to drink as much plain “pure” (i.e., lacking trace minerals)
water as possible, moderation in all things is recommended. Most women
reduce the amount of coffee and wine during pregnancy to avoid exces-
sive caffeine and alcohol. At the same time, few cut these items out of
Diet and Health 159
their diet entirely, continuing to sip a café au lait in the morning, if it

continues to appeal, and perhaps a small glass of wine with dinner. Except
in the case of a specific health problem or intolerance, a more extreme
approach is perceived as fanatical. The exception is raw salads and raw
vegetables that cannot be peeled. These are strictly déconseillés (recom-
mended against), because in France they bring the risk of toxoplasmosis.
The birth of the child is, naturally, an occasion for celebration. Family
and friends visiting the new mother and child after they have left the
maternité (maternity ward or room) bring gifts for the mother, such as
flowers and bottles of Champagne, in addition to useful items for the baby,
such as clothing.
The attitude toward feeding infants is practical. It is recognized that
breastfeeding a newborn is highly beneficial to the child. At the same
time, there is little stigma attached to choosing against breastfeeding. If
the mother does not want to or cannot, it is thought that there is no use
asking her to act à contrecoeur (against her wishes). In this case, there is
recourse to the wide variety of formulas for infants in every stage of devel-
opment, available in the supermarchés. About half of women breast-feed
their babies, and doctors recommend that they stop at three months. At
three months, the baby has received the essential nutrients and antibodies
from the mother. There is also a good deal of generalized social pressure to
stop at this point. It is widely felt that to extend breastfeeding any longer
is unseemly, as if to do so might hold back the infant in the earliest stages
of development. To continue to breast-feed an infant after three months
may also be impractical if the mother must return to work after the
10-week paid maternity leave.
BABIES AND CHILDREN

Initiating children into the rites of the table is essential to their educa-
tion, socialization, and health. Babies and very young children often eat
separately from the parents, who take their meals a bit later. At about
three to four months, babies are offered purées de fruits, then cooked puréed
vegetables, in addition to breast milk or formula. As the baby begins to eat
solid food, people buy petits pots (jars of baby food) or make food at home,
relying on the simplest cooking methods that avoid the use of fats, such
as steaming, boiling, and poaching. At about six months, a greater variety
of vegetable purées are proposed, then cereals such as semolina and rice,
honey, yogurt and fromage blanc, and tiny quantities of meat or fish: first
viande blanche or white meats (chicken, veal) and poisson blanc or maigre
or white fish that is low in fat (sole, cod, hake), then beef, and eventually
ham. At about nine months or so, children are offered bread, then eggs.
At about one year, fattier fish such as sardines, tuna, and salmon may be
incorporated into the diet, along with raw vegetable such as peeled grated
carrots and cooked dried legumes such as lentils and haricots. By about a
year to 15 months, when the baby can drink cow’s milk, it is thought that
the child can eat a full variety of solid foods. The strong dietary prohibi-
tions for babies are against added salt and sugar, foods that are too fatty or
strong in flavor, and foods that present extra risks of bacteria or allergens:
no pork, horsemeat, game, shellfish, fried foods, peanuts, or spices, and no
sweets.
To young children (ages three to six years) parents give simple foods
seen as easy to digest and appealing to the still-developing palette. The
classic child’s meal begins with a potage (soup) made of vegetables boiled
in lightly salted water or plain broth, then passed through a moulinette
(food mill) or puréed with the hand-held mixeur-plongeant. Potatoes,
broccoli, turnips, leeks, spinach, carrots, pumpkin, and artichokes are
common soup ingredients. A bit of pasta may be cooked in the soup and a
spoon of grated Gruyère added for garnish. Jambon-coquillettes is a favorite
children’s meal: boiled pasta such as small shells or elbow macaroni with
a bit of butter and mild grated cheese and a slice of jambon blanc (fresh
ham, more meaty and less salty than the aged hams). Meat, especially
red meat, and beef in particular, is considered important, as it is thought
to donner des forces (build strength). It is recommended that children eat
meat once each day, and parents enjoin their child to Mange ta viande!
(“Eat your meat!”). Small children eat meat that is thoroughly cooked;
older children are taught to appreciate beef that is saignant (“bloody,”
i.e., rare), as adults do. Butchers grind to order children’s portions of steak
haché (ground or chopped beef), which is then loosely patted into a flat
oval shape to be pan fried. Escalopes de poulet (chicken cutlets) sautéed in
butter or oil are popular. Vegetable purées, enriched with a little milk and
a tiny quantity of butter, are essential preparations, along with bread to
accompany everything. Food for children is ideally to be nutritious, tasty,
and well textured. Soft foods, too many sweets, and too much sugar are
avoided. Sodas are viewed as empty calories and are frowned upon. The
same is true of fruit juices, seen as overly sugary, and a poor substitute for
fresh fruit. In the morning, children are given hot milk or hot chocolate.
Later in the day they may drink tisanes (herbal infusions) but no coffee or
tea. Older children are expected to sit at table with adults, to eat the same
foods that adults are eating, and to be polite and sociable.
There is great concern among parents and at the level of the state to
inculcate good eating habits in children. Parents want to raise healthy
Diet and Health 161
children who enjoy a good quality of life and who are equipped to be
socially integrated. The state is concerned with public health, as it regu-
lates the health care system and has the economic vitality of the country
in mind. In secondary schools, the annual fall Semaine du goût and other
initiatives teach children about the country’s culinary heritage and simul-
taneously present alternatives to la mal bouffe (“bad grub”). Beginning in
the 1970s, the term mal bouffe or malbouffe was used to mean fast food and
junk food. Now it can refer to any food considered unhealthy, an unbal-
anced diet, an unreflecting mode of eating. As part of the effort to protect
the health of children by encouraging good eating habits, the state has
forbidden the sale of soft drinks and candies in secondary schools and
mandated that lessons on nutrition and health be incorporated into the
national curriculum. Similarly, the state regulates television advertising,
seen as exerting a nefarious influence on children’s health and eating and
consumer habits. At present, for instance, commercials cannot occupy
more than 12 minutes to the hour on television, and televised publicity
for tobacco and for beverages containing more than 1.2 percent alcohol
is forbidden.5
FOOD FOR THE SICK

When care of the seriously ill still was given at home and predominantly
by family members, household manuals and most cookbooks included a
section with recipes for the treatment of the invalide (invalid or sick per-
son). Today, “pectoral” broths and home remedies such as chest plasters
have disappeared, in favor of the modern commercial pharmaceuticals
that professional doctors prescribe.
There remains little concept of specific foods appropriate for the ill;
rather, adjustments are made to the diet overall. As in the United States,
serious conditions are addressed with radical changes, such as a low-
protein diet in the case of kidney problems. In a nation of wine-drinkers,
the crise de foie (“liver crisis”) was a classic complaint, extensible to
nearly any malaise. Today, of course, avoiding alcohol is recommended
against the more specific problems of cirrhosis or enzyme imbalance.
There is, similarly, little conception of a special diet for the troisième
and quatrième âges (third and fourth ages, i.e., retirement and old age:
people ages 60 and older and 75 and older, respectively) outside of re-
ducing portions to suit lower activity levels and a slower metabolism.
For the minor, day-to-day complaints, smaller adjustments are made.
In case of bouffissures or gonflements (swelling resulting from water re-
tention), an effort is made to reduce the intake of wine, coffee, and
salty and rich foods such as cheese. For temporary illness affecting the
appetite, light and easily digested foods are recommended. Against gastric
ills, plain boiled rice and cooked carrots form the menu, and doctors
recommend that one avoid green vegetables and salads, until the illness
has passed. Purée de pommes (apple sauce) may also be given, as well as
broths or light soups. Mineral waters high in magnesium, salads, fresh
fruits and vegetables, even a drink of pastis may be taken to improve
digestion, and plain yogurt eaten to soothe the stomach and encour-
age beneficial intestinal flora. Tisanes or herbal infusions are enjoyed
as after-dinner hot drinks or before bed, but they are also thought to
have specific useful properties: rose hips against colds, chamomile to
soothe the stomach, linden as a calming tea before bed. An after-dinner
drink such as a Cognac or other fruit brandy is referred to as a digestif
(digestive). The small shot of strong alcohol is thought to settle the
stomach after a rich or large meal and to promote digestion.
Knowledge of the medicinal properties of foods and notions of regulat-
ing health through diet are traceable to antiquity. The holistic approach
to balancing the diet has its most ancient roots in the Greek theory of the
four bodily humors, which had to be balanced through the best choice
of foods for an individual’s constitution. Today, the view that connects
health and diet through a notion of harmony and balance is completed by
the conviction that adequate rest and relaxation, including proper vaca-
tions from work, are important for health.
As a complement to the maintenance of health through a balanced,
harmonious diet, there is also a cachet (gel capsule), comprimé (tablet),
or pillule (pill) designed, it seems, for every health problem, no matter
how small. That France is a highly medicalized country is due in part
to the provisions of the outstanding national medical care. Coverage
allows patients to choose their physicians, and it gives physicians great
freedom to prescribe medications and tests. Consumer awareness and
the ongoing development of new pharmaceuticals, including those to
treat complaints such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension that
are relatively common in the aging population, further contribute to
this trend.6
PROBLEMS OF ABUNDANCE
As in most affluent countries where people have an embarras du choix
(a wealth of choice—or too many choices), problems related to eating
too much are on the rise. Conditions associated with an overabundant
diet combined with a sedentary lifestyle, notably obesity, are becoming
Diet and Health 163
more prevalent. In 2006, INSERM, the Institut National de la Santé et

de la Recherche Médicale or National Institute for Health and Medical
Research, estimated that 1 of every 10 children is obese by the age of 10,
twice the figure measured in 1980.7 Categorizations of weight as “nor-
mal,” “excessive,” and so on derive from the IMC or indice de masse
corporelle (BMI or body mass index) established by the World Health
Organization’s International Obesity Task Force. The IMC is a ratio
calculated to evaluate a person’s weight status. It is defined as weight
in kilograms, divided by the square of the height measured in meters.
According to this ratio, overweight is defined as having an IMC of
greater than 25; an IMC greater than 30 indicates obesity. In France
as in the United States, putting on excess weight often results from the
addition of snacks to the schedule of regular meals8; from eating for rea-
sons such as boredom or stress, rather than hunger; from eating large
quantities of sugar in sweets, processed foods, and sodas; and from a lack
of adequate physical activity. Physicians and researchers observe higher
incidences of gastric and intestinal disorders, diabetes, sleep apnea, and
other conditions associated with excess weight. Overconsumption may
bring or manifest psychological stresses, as well, especially as contem-
porary ideals of beauty for both men and women require a slender ligne
(figure). Pathological behaviors related to eating and having psychological
causes, such as anorexia and bulimia, slowly increase, along with the
sale of weight loss products first developed in the United States and now
infiltrating the French market.
The progress of afflictions related to overconsumption, although
alarming, is slower in France than in many other nations. This is due
to the strong traditions of the family meal, to the sense of ceremony
that accompanies eating, and to the fact that many families continue
to cook regular meals at home and to take regular meals when dining
out. In the last decade, the state has adopted an interventionist mode,
encouraging, and even requiring, preventive measures as part of regular
health care. A carnet de santé (health notebook) is established for each
child at birth. The notebook is used to monitor preventable conditions
throughout childhood. Doctors note such information as the dates
of required vaccinations, any instance of dental decay, and domestic
accidents. Since 1995, the notebooks contain a courbe de corpulence
(corpulence curve) to track the child’s weight relative to a normal esti-
mate for development based on the body mass index. A departure from
the normal range on the curve sounds the alert. For cases of weight
gain, doctors advise a modest reduction in portion size to be observed
over the long term, avoidance of sweets and eating between meals, and
the encouragement of physical activity such as walking and playing

outdoors.
FOOD SAFETY
The safety of the food supply and the reliability of the federal and
European governments in its regulation are contemporary preoccupa-
tions. Although most edibles are purchased at grocery stores, procur-
ing fresh food directly from a farmer remains an ideal. People want the
foods that they purchase and eat to be natural and unadulterated for the
purpose of commerce or convenience, thus pure, as well as affordable.
Ideally, they want to know the origins of what they eat, traceable to a
specific place and an individual producer. Terroir and the AOC label,
with their references to quality, artisanal methods, and regional particu-
larity, respond well to these ideals. The notion of purity at work here
should not be confused with the equally important matter of hygiene or
cleanliness. The French are notorious defenders of the salubriousness
and unbeatable savor of, for instance, the cheeses that they carefully
craft from raw (unpasteurized) milk. The expanding market for domestic
and imported produits biologiques (organic items) indexes the concern
to eat the natural foods that are believed to be the healthiest. That
people pay more for organic items suggests the additional ethical inter-
est in supporting ecologically sustainable and nonpolluting methods of
agriculture, a feature of organic farming.
The biggest bugbears are OGM or organismes génétiquement modifiés
(GMOs or genetically modified organisms) and other corporate industrial
agricultural practices such as the use of antibiotics and growth hormones
in meat. Human interference with the genetic makeup of foods is trace-
able to prehistoric times. Long before the development of sophisticated
techniques for breeding and hybridization, humans began to tinker with
the natural selection of characteristics in plants and animals through
hunting and gathering, herding and agriculture. Where these and later
practices result in modifications within single species, however, the term
OGM refers to transgenic alterations. That is, an OGM is a plant or
animal that has received genetic material from a different kind of plant
or animal. At present worldwide, the most common transgenic foodstuffs
and crops are soybeans, corn, and cotton that contain genes from bacte-
ria providing resistance to herbicides (allowing for or requiring the use
of pesticides) or insects (providing resistance to pests). Most genetically
modified crops are grown (since 1994) in the United States, where most
processed foods for sale contain ingredients from a genetically modified
Diet and Health 165
crop. By contrast, transgenic foods are rare in Europe. France grows

only a few hundred hectares of genetically modified crops, and the farm-
ers who grow them are responsible for indemnities, should other crops
accidentally be contaminated by a stray seed or by pollen.9
The pervasive mistrust of transgenic foods and industrial farming prac-
tices—viewed as unnatural, unhealthy, and environmentally harmful—
combines with abiding suspicion of the state’s commitment to protect
people. Two incidents that occurred in the mid-1990s provoked extraor-
dinary social mobilization, protest, and debate. In 1996, cargo loads of
American transgenic soy arrived in France. This transpired shortly after
the first known death (in 1995) in the United Kingdom from Creutzfeldt-
Jacob disease, the human variant of BSE or bovine spongiform encepha-
lopathy. As tens of thousands of cows were put to death, and as more
people died including in France, the spread of the disease was traced to the
cannibalistic practice in industrial agriculture of recycling animal waste as
feed. That is, cows on industrial farms were being fed the remains of other
slaughtered cows, such as in the form of bone meal. Some of the feed was
contaminated. The strong reaction in France and Europe to these inci-
dents and practices helps to explain regulations currently in force.
Recent statutes regarding animals and meat give a sense of the strong
interest in maintaining a safe, natural food supply in a manner that is
also ethical and ecologically sustainable. In 1997, the European Union
included a clause in the Treaty of Amsterdam that requires member states
to protect the welfare of animals as sentient beings.10 Veterinary inspec-
tors make regular visits to slaughterhouses, and other changes have been
enacted. For instance, European Union regulations now prohibit old-
fashioned methods for raising le veau sous la mère (milk-fed veal), designed
to produce truly white, rather than pink, flesh, such as sheltering young
calves from the light. In France and the European Union, administer-
ing growth hormones to animals destined to be sold for meat is illegal.
In 1999, the European market closed to imported beef raised on growth
hormones, and the European Union is currently financing studies to
understand the harmful effects of hormones and also antibiotics in meat.11
Laws enacted in the 1990s multiplied the quality-control labels for meat.
As in the case of wine, the AOC label indicates a typical, regional prod-
uct, as well as a standard of quality. AB stands for Agriculture biologique
or organically raised meat. The Label Rouge (red label) and Certificat de
Conformité (quality standards certificate) indicate high grades of meat.
Since the late 1970s, animals raised for milk and meat have been carefully
tracked. In 1998, the French system was modified to conform to European
regulations, which in fact largely follow the French system of controls that
was already in place. Since 2000, meat sold prepackaged in supermarkets

carries an identifying ticket indicating the cut of meat, the date by which
it is best consumed, the place of origin of the animal, and identifying
information for the slaughterhouse where it was killed and processed. The
year 2001 saw the creation of the AFSSA or Agence française de sécurité
sanitaire des aliments (French Agency for Food Sanitation and Security) to
protect consumer interests.12
The current stance regarding OGM is slightly ambiguous. France, like
Europe, and unlike the United States, follows the principe de précaution
(precautionary principle) regarding transgenic modification. According
to the precautionary principle, transgenic crops and foods must be proven
safe before they are made available to farmers and consumers, with the
burden of proof for safety resting on producers. In 1998, seven member
states, including France, implemented a ban on the sale of any new bio-
engineered crops, as testing of old applications continued. In October
2003, European rules began to require that the presence even of a small
quantity of transgenic organism (0.9 percent of authorized and 0.5 percent
of nonauthorized OGM for the European market) be indicated on labels for
food and animal feed.13 In 2004, Europe began again to approve transgenic
crops for importing, effectively putting an end to the old moratorium.
The blanket bans on genetically modified foods have been superseded,
then, by the labeling rules that make their presence transparent and that
make transgenic products traceable. Against the rulings of other authori-
ties such as the European Commission, however, the European Court of
Justice continues to back countries that wish to ban genetically modified
crops if they can demonstrate a health risk. Despite the legal ambiguity,
few people are willing to buy transgenic foods. Many people, including
specialized consumer interest groups, maintain a remarkably vigilant atti-
tude. People remain aware of the sway that corporate and trading interests
exert on the government, which is responsible for regulation, and keen to
protect the rich traditions of agriculture and artisanal production, cooking
and eating that define living well à la française.
NOTES
1. Sandrine Blanchard, “Les Français consomment moins d’alcool et de
tabac,” Le Monde (March 9, 2006).
2. Alexandre Lazareff, L’exception culinaire française (Paris: Albin Michel,
1998), 136.
3. J. L. Richard, “Les facteurs de risque coronarien: Le paradoxe français,”
Archives des Maladies du Coeur et des Vaisseaux 80 (April 1987): 17–21; Serge
Diet and Health 167
Renaud and M. de Lorgeril, “Dietary lipids and their relation to ischaemic heart
disease: From epidemiology to prevention,” Journal of Internal Medicine 225
(Supplement 1, 1989): 39–46 and “Wine, alcohol, platelets, and the French
paradox for coronary heart disease,” The Lancet 339 (1992): 1523–26; and Serge
Renaud, Le Régime Santé (Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob, 1995).
4. Paul Rozin, Kimberly Kabnick, Erin Pete, Claude Fischler, and Christy
Shields, “The Ecology of Eating: Smaller Portion Sizes in France Than in the
United States Help Explain the French Paradox,” Psychological Science 14, no. 5
(September 2003): 450–54.
5. Monique Dagnaud, Enfants, consommation et publicité télévisée. Notes et
études documentaires 5166 (Paris: La Documentation Française, 2003), 12 and
55–67.
6. Sophie Chauveau, “Malades ou consommateurs? La consommation de
médicaments en France dans le second XXe siècle,” pp. 182–98 in Alain Chatriot,
Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel, and Matthew Hilton, eds., Au nom du consommateur
(Paris: Découverte, 2004).
7. “Obésité des jeunes” (May 2006), http://www.inserm.fr/.
8. Jean-Pierre Poulain, Sociologies de l’alimentation (Paris: PUF, 2002) and
Manger aujourd’hui (Toulouse: Privat, 2002).
9. Hervé Morin, “Monsanto élabore les OGM de demain,” Le Monde
(March 21, 2006).
10. Jo Murphy-Lawless, “Risk, Ethics, and Public Space: The Impact of
BSE and Foot-and-Mouth Disease on Public Thinking,” p. 225 in Barbara Herr
Harthorn and Laury Oaks, eds., Risk, Culture, and Health Ineqality (Westport, CT:
Praeger, 2003).
11. Francesca Bray, “Genetically Modified Foods: Shared Risk and Global
Action,” in Harthorn and Oaks, 196.
12. Alain Chatriot, “Qui défend le consommateur? Associations, institutions
et politiques publiques en France (1972–2003),” p. 179 in Chatriot, Chessel, and
Hilton.
13. Céline Granjou, “Traçabilité, étiquetage et émergence du ‘citoyen-
consommateur’: l’exemple des OGM,” p. 208 in Chatriot, Chessel, and Hilton.
Glossary
Amuse-bouche Appetizer.
Apéritif A drink taken before lunch or dinner and served with finger
food such as nuts, chips, or appetizers.
Baguette Long, slim crusty loaf of bread.
Biscuits Cookies.
Boulangerie Bread bakery and shop.
Bouquet garni A bundle of fresh herbs dropped into broths and soups to
lend flavor during cooking.
Café A small, strong coffee. Also a café or coffee shop.
Café au lait Coffee with hot milk drunk at breakfast.
Cantine Canteen or cafeteria.
Charcuterie Cured meat products, especially pork, such as hams and
sausages.
Collation Mid-morning snack for children.
Croissant Buttery, flaky, crescent-shaped breakfast pastry.
Crudités Raw vegetables, served as a composed salad for the first course
of a meal.
Déjeuner Lunch, mid-day meal.
Digestif Drink served after a meal.
170 Glossary
Dîner Dinner, evening meal.

Dragée Sugar-coated almond or Jordan almond.
Entrée The first course of a meal, such as a cooked salad.
Foie gras Fattened liver of a canard (duck) or oie (goose). A great
delicacy.
Frites French fried potatoes.
Fromage Cheese; also the cheese course of a meal.
Goûter Afternoon snack for children.
Lard Fresh bacon used in cooking.
Merguez Spicy beef or lamb sausage.
Pain au chocolat Croissant filled with chocolate.
Pâtisserie Pastry; also the pastry bakery and shop.
Petit-déjeuner Breakfast.
Pâte Pastry dough or bread dough.
Pâtes Pasta, such as spaghetti or elbow macaroni.
Plat Main course of a meal, usually meat; the plat is the second course,
after the entrée.
Poisson Fish.
Potage Soup.
Réveillon Late festive meal served on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s
Eve.
Stockfisch Salted dried codfish.
Tarte Tart, like a pie with a bottom crust only.
Tartine Bread spread with something, such as butter or jam.
Tisane Herbal tea, or infusion.
Tourte Tart covered with a top crust and usually having a savory
filling.
Viande Meat.
Vinaigrette Oil and vinegar dressing.
Resource Guide
WEB SITES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND OFFICES

Centre de Recherche pour l’Étude et l’Observation des Conditions de Vie
(CREDOC)
Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions
http://www.credoc.fr/
Chef Simon
http://www.chefsimon.com/
Commission Européenne
European Commission
http://ec.europa.eu/
Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation (IEHCA)
European Institute of Food History and Cultures
http://www.ieha.asso.fr/
Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO)
National Institute of Denominations of Origin
http://www.inao.gouv.fr/
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
National Institute of Agronomic Research
http://www.inra.fr/
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)
National Institute of Health and Medical Research
http://www.inserm.fr/
172 Resource Guide
Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE)

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies
http://www.insee.fr/
Ministère de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche
Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing
http://www.agriculture.gouv.fr/
Ministère de la Culture
Ministry of Culture
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/
Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale
Ministry of National Education
http://www.education.gouv.fr/
Ministère de la Santé et de la Protection Sociale
Ministry of Health and Social Protection
http://www.sante.gouv.fr/
Recipes
http://marmiton.org/
MAGAZINES
Chefs et saveurs
L’Hôtellerie
Néorestauration
Omnivore
Papilles
60 Millions de consommateurs
Vins, saveurs et traditions
FILMS
Adieu, Philippine (1963) by Jacques Rozier.

Une affaire de goût (2000) by Bernard Rapp.
L’Aile ou la cuisse (1976) by Claude Zidi.
Alimentation générale (2005) by Chantal Briet.
Au Bon Beurre (1952) by Jean Dutourd.
Le Boucher (1970) by Claude Chabrol.
La Bûche (1999) by Danièle Thompson.
Carnages (2002) by Delphine Gleize.
Resource Guide 173
Chacun cherche son chat (1996) by Cedric Klapisch.

Le Chagrin et la pitié (1972) by Marcel Ophüls.
Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972) by Luis Buñuel.
Chocolat (1988) by Claire Denis.
La Cuisine au beurre (1963) by Gilles Grangier.
Cuisine et dépendances (1993) by Philippe Muyl.
Décalage horaire (2002) by Danièle Thompson.
Delicatessen (1991) by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
La Femme du boulanger (1938) by Marcel Pagnol.
Le Festin de Babette [Babettes Gaestebud] (1987) by Gabriel Axel.
Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000) by Agnès Varda.
La Grande bouffe (1973) by Marco Ferreri.
Jean de Florette (1986) by Claude Berri.
Le joli mai (1962) by Chris Marker.
Manon des sources (1953) by Marcel Pagnol and version of (1986) by
Claude Berri.
Masculin / Féminin (1966) by Jean-Luc Godard.
Métisse (1993) by Mathieu Kassovitz.
Mille et une recettes d’un cuisinier amoureux (1996) by Nana Dzhordzadze.
Mon oncle (1958) by Jacques Tati.
Mondovino (2004) by Jonathan Nossiter.
Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (2002) by François Dupeyron.
Nénette et Boni (1996) by Claire Denis.
Au Petit Marguery (1995) by Laurent Bénégui.
Les Quatre cents coups (1959) by François Truffaut.
Les Stances à Sophie (1970) by Moshé Mizrahi.
37°2 le matin (1986) by Jean-Jacques Beineix.
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) by Jacques Becker.
La Traversée de Paris (1956) by Claude Autant-Lara.
Vatel (1990) by Roland Joffé.
Le Week-end (1967) by Jean-Luc Godard.
Selected Bibliography
GENERAL WORKS
The Cambridge World History of Food. Editors Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild
Coneè Ornelas. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2000.
Culinary Biographies. Editor Alice Arndt. Houston: YesPress, 2006.
Larousse gastronomique. Editors Joël Robuchon and the Gastronomic Committee.
New York: Clarkson Potter, 2001.
The Oxford Companion to Food. Editor Alan Davidson. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1999.
The Oxford Companion to Wine. Editor Jancis Robinson. 2nd edition. Oxford,
UK: Oxford University Press, 1999.
COOKBOOKS
Andrews, Colman, et al. Saveur Cooks Authentic French. San Francisco: Chronicle
Books, 1999.
Blanc, Georges and Coco Jobard. Simple French Cooking: Recipes from Our Mothers’
Kitchens (2000). London: Cassell, 2001.
Bocuse, Paul. La Cuisine du marché (1976). Paris: Flammarion, 1980.
Boudou, Evelyne and Jean-Marc Boudou. Les bonnes recettes des bouchons lyonnais.
Seyssinet: Libris, 2003.
Child, Julia with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French
Cooking (1961). Vol. 1. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
——— with Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1970). Vol. 2.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
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Culinaria France (1998). Editor André Dominé. Cologne: Könemann, 1999.
Duplessy, Bernard. Cuisine traditionnelle en pays niçois. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud,
1995.
Escoffier, Auguste. The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery (1903).
Translators H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann. New York: John Wiley,
2001.
Fletcher, Janet and Hallie Donnelly Harron. French Home Cooking. San Francisco:
California Culinary Academy, 1989.
Gaborieau, Stéphane. Cuisine lyonnaise d’hier et d’aujourd’hui. Rennes: Ouest-
France, 2005.
Granoux-Lansard, Monique. Les meilleures recettes de Provence et de Côte d’Azur.
Colmar: S.A.E.P., 1986.
Gringoire, T. and L. Saulnier. Le Répertoire de la cuisine (1914). Paris: Flammarion,
1986.
Guérard, Michel. La grande cuisine minceur. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1976.
Guillot, André. La grande cuisine bourgeoise: Souvenirs, secrets, recettes. Paris:
Flammarion, 1976.
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Hal, Fatéma. Les saveurs et les gestes: Cuisines et traditions du Maroc. Preface by
Tahar ben Jelloun. Paris: Stock, 1996.
Maincent-Morel, Michel. La cuisine de référence. Preface by Bernard Loiseau.
Paris: BPI, 2002.
Mathiot, G. Je sais cuisiner (1932). Paris: Albin Michel, 1990.
Olney, Richard. Simple French Food (1974). New York: Wiley, 1992.
Olney, Richard with Jacques Gantié. Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook (1993).
San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1999.
Pellaprat, Henri-Paul. The Great Book of French Cuisine (1966). New York:
Vendome Press, 2003.
Pudlowski, Gilles. Great Women Chefs of Europe. Paris: Flammarion, 2005.
Raphaël, Freddy. La cuisine juive en Alsace. Strasbourg: La Nuée Bleue, 2005.
Vié, Blandine and Henri Bouchet. Premiers repas de bébé. Paris: Marabout, 2003.
Wolfert, Paula. The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France’s Magnificent
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CHAPTER 3
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CHAPTER 4
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CHAPTER 5
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CHAPTER 6
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Index
absinthe, 77–78 anchoïade, 139

abundance, 41, 155–56, 162–64 anchovies, 66
accras, 53 ancien régime, 18–28
adulteration, 16, 33–34, 164–66 angelica, 75
AFSSA (Agence française de sécurité Angevins, 12, 13
sanitaire des aliments), 166 animal welfare, 165
Agde, 2; Council of, 9 anise, 60, 141
agriculture, 1, 3–7, 10–13, 17–18, 32, anniversary, 147
38, 73, 150, 156, 164–66 anorexia nervosa, 163
aïgo-boulido, recipe, 140 Anthimus, 8
Aigues-Mortes, 59 Antilles, 23
L’Aile ou la cuisse (Zidi), 132 AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée),
aïoli, 52, 139 35–37, 47, 126, 165
À la recherche du temps perdu (Proust), aperitif, 48, 72, 77–78, 112–13,
129 148–49
alcohol, 11, 148, 156, 158–59, 161 Apicius, 8, 11
alcoholism, 33, 43–44, 156 apiculture, 73
ale, 4, 7, 11, 62, 77 Appert, Nicolas, 121
Algeria, 61 apple, 3, 6, 66, 70–71, 77, 120;
allec, 6 stewed, recipe, 86
All Saints’ Day, 152 appliances, 88–90, 106–7, 160
almond, 23, 71. See also dragée apricot, 70–71
Alsace, 18, 61, 77, 120, 139 aqueduct, 5
Americas, 17–18 Aquitaine, 6, 12
amphora, 4 arbutus, 6
186 Index
Arles, 5 Battle of Fat and Lean, 143–44

Armistice Day, 144 Baudelaire, Charles, 43
army (food), 4, 121–22, 124 bay leaf, 6, 60
Art de bien traiter (L.S.R.), 19 beach food, 135
Art de la cuisine française au 19e siècle bean, 3, 11, 13, 17, 51, 64, 66, 142,
(Carême), 30 157
artichoke, 11, 66, 139 Beaune, 12
asceticism, 8–11, 144 Beauvilliers, Antoine, 27
Ash Wednesday, 143–44 beaver, 2
Asia, 17, 75 beef, 2, 3, 6, 46, 165–66
asparagus, 5, 67 beer, 4, 8, 10–11, 13, 62, 77, 119–21
Association des Maîtres cuisiniers de beet, 6, 11, 65
France, 92 beignet, 135, 152
Astérix, 3 Belgium, 14, 23
Athenaeus, 4 Benedict of Nursia, 9
Atlantic Ocean, 2, 6, 13, 52, 58 Benin, 85
Attila the Hun, 6 berlingot, 72
Aucassin et Nicolette, 143 berry, 7, 70–71
aurochs, 1 bêtise de Cambrai, 72
Ausonius, Decimus Agnus, 8 Biarritz, 121
authenticity, 126 birthday, 147–48
Auvergne, 13, 18, 120 biscuit, 2
Avignon, 149, 151 bistro, 119–20, 128
avocado, 71 blanc, 66
blanquette, 144; recipe, 113–14
baby food, 159–60 Bleu d’Auvergne, 57; des Causses, 57
bacon, 19, 47, 65 blood: in civet de lapin, 50; sausage, 48
baeckeoffe, 120 blueberry, 17, 70
bagna cauda, 66 BMI (body mass index), 163
baguette. See bread boar, 2, 3–4, 6, 47
bakers, 11, 16, 32–33, 43 boarding house, 14
banana, 70 Bocuse, Paul, 93, 95
banquet, 1, 8–11, 20–22, 96, 138–41, Boileau, Étienne, 16
144, 146–47 Boileau, Nicolas, 18
bar, 3, 120, 128–29 Bonnefons, Nicolas de, 17
barbecue, 114, 134, 149 Bordeaux, 8, 13, 35–36
barding, 50 Borel, Jacques, 132
barley, 1, 2, 7, 10, 13, 62, 77 bouillabaisse, 27, 51–52
barrel, 4, 7 boulangerie, 83, 118
Barthes, Roland, 133 bouquet garni, 19, 60
basil, 60 bourgeoisie, 22, 24, 30
Basque country, 62 bourride, 52
bass, 6, 52 brains, 49
Bastille Day, 149–50 brandade de morue, 27, 53
Index 187
brandy, 13, 77, 162 candy, 72–73; cotton, 151–52

brasserie, 120, 127–28; Brasserie Lipp, canned food, 121–22
120 Cannes, 121, 151
bread, 1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 13, 18, 25–26, cannibalism, 165
32–33, 41–43, 105, 107, 144, 156; Cantal, 56–57
recipe, 141–42 caper, 3
breakfast, 103–4, 106–7 Capetians, 11–12
bream, 52 Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii
breastfeeding, 26, 159 (Charlemagne), 11
Brie de Meaux, 57 capon, 49, 146
Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme, 29 caramel, 145
Brittany, 6, 13, 54, 58, 62, 77 caraway, 6, 57, 60
broccoli, 67 carbonade, 77
brochette, 49, 97 cardiovascular disease, 157, 162
broiling, 112 cardoon, 66, 140
brewery, 77. See also brasserie Carême, Marie-Antoine, 29–30, 145
Britain, 6, 12–13, 23, 28 Carnival, 143–44, 151–52
BSE (bovine spongiform encepha- Carolingians, 10–12
lopathy), 165 carp, 52
bûche de Noël, 139 Carré de l’Est, 57
buckwheat, 13, 62; crêpes, recipe, carrot, 3, 65, 162
62–63 carving, 14, 22, 96
bulgar, 62 cassis, 76
bulimia, 163 cassoulet, 51, 64, 131, 157
Burgundians, 6 caterer, 26–27, 84, 146
Burgundy, 14 Catholicism, 22, 26
butcher, 3, 11, 16, 25 cattle, 3
butter, 4, 7, 54, 143 cauliflower, 3, 67
cave painting, 1
cabbage, 3, 11, 65 celery, 66; root, 65; seed, 6
Cabécou, 56 Celts, 3–4, 6, 77
Cadet de Gassicourt, 34 cena, 5
Caesar, Julius, 4 chamomile, 162
café, 24, 73, 76, 119, 127–28, 131, Champagne, 34, 44, 138–39, 144,
134; Café de Flore, 120; Café Pro- 147
cope, 24 Champlain, Samuel de, 17
cafeteria, 92, 108–11, 121–24 La Chanson de Roland, 12
cake, 73, 147, 149 chanterelle, 69
calf’s head, 49 Chantilly, 21
calisson d’Aix, 72 charcuterie, 4, 47–48, 149
calvados, 78 charcutier, 16
Camargue, 62 chard, 65, 140–41
Camembert, 57 charity, 12–14
Candlemas, 143 Charlemagne, 10–12
188 Index
Chartreuse, 78 colonies, 23, 32, 131

chausson, 73 Columbian exchange, 17–18
Chauvet, 1 Columbus, Christopher, 17
cheese, 2, 4, 6, 11, 13, 56–58, 66; comfit, 145
puffs, recipe, 58 communion, 9, 22, 33, 145
chef, 30, 91–100 compote, 69, 71; apple, recipe, 86
cherry, 70; sour, 6 condiment, 58–59, 115
chervil, 60 confectionary, 72–73
chestnut, 6, 13, 72, 119, 138; can- confit (de canard and d’oie), 50–51
died, 72 conversation, 2, 24, 160
chèvre, 56–57 conviviality, 2, 9, 105, 127, 156–57
chicken, 6, 49, 59, 69, 120, 134, 160 convivium, 5
chickpea, 1, 3, 11, 13, 64, 118 cook, 27, 30, 89–91
chicory, 66, 75 cookbook, 14–15, 19–20, 22, 30, 87
chiffonnade, 65 cookie, 111, 129, 143; recipe, 129–30
childbirth, 159 cooking methods, 2, 7, 15, 19–20,
children’s meals, 107–10, 147, 45–47, 49–54, 63–69, 71, 87–90,
159–61 97–99, 112–15, 131–32, 159, 162
China, 54, 74, 85 cooking school, 91–92
chitterling, 48 coriander, 6, 60–61, 145
chive, 60–61 corn, 17–18, 62
chocolate, 16, 72–73, 75, 144, 160 coronary disease, 157
cholesterol, 157 Corsica, 13, 144
chrism, 10 Cortès, Hernando, 17
christening, 145–46 Cosquer, 1
Christianity, 8–12 Côte d’Azur, 2–3, 53
Christmas, 137–42 courses (of a meal), 5, 8, 15, 28–29,
cider, 7, 13, 77 42, 44, 74, 96–97, 103, 105–6,
cinnamon, 9, 15, 59, 139 112, 131, 146–47, 156–57
cirrhosis, 156, 161 couscous, 61–62, 64, 68, 130
citron, 71 cow, 6, 165. See also beef
civet de lapin, 50 crab, 53, 71
Civil Law Code, 27 cranberry, 18
clam, 53 cream, 56, 65
Clermont-Ferrand, 12, 61 crème: anglaise, 73; brûlée, 68; fraîche,
clove, 15, 19, 59, 139 56, 65
Club des Cent, 95 crêpes, 118, 143; buckwheat, recipe,
cocktail, 77–78, 112–13, 148–49 62–63
cod, 13, 52–53, 88; dried, salted, 13, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, 165
121, 138–39 Crieries de Paris (Guillaume de Vil-
coffee, 22–24, 75, 106–8, 119, 135, leneuve), 16
158; break, 107–8 critic (food), 27–28, 99–100
Cognac, 78, 162 croissant, 73, 119
Cointreau, 78 croquembouche, 145
Index 189
croquette, 64 L’École parfaite des officiers de bouche,

Crottin de Chavignol, 56 22
Croze, Augustin, 125 education (taste), 109–11; Ministry
crudité, 65, 149 of Education, 108–9
crusades, 12–13, 23, 70, 77 eel, 2, 52
cucumber, 11, 66 egg, 5, 6, 26, 51, 66, 69, 143–44, 147
cuisine du marché, 85 eggplant, 67–68; recipe, 68
cuisine gastronomique, 20, 95–97 Einhard the Frank, 11
Le Cuisinier (Pierre de Lune), 19 einkorn, 1
La Cuisinière bourgeoise (Menon), 22 elderberry, 71
Le Cuisinier françois (La Varenne), 19 Émile, ou de l’Éducation (Rousseau),
Le Cuisinier roïal et bourgeois (Mas- 26
sialot), 22 Emmental, 57
cumin, 6, 61 emmer, 1, 5
Curnonsky (Maurice Edmond Sail- Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné
land), 124–25 des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
currant: black, 70; red, 70 (Diderot), 25–26
cuttlefish, 54 endive, 66
Enlightenment, 24–27
dairy products, 55–58, 155–56 Epiphany, 142
date, 6, 10 Époisses, 57
daube, 46, 114 Escoffier, Auguste, 31, 96, 121–22
decentralization, 125–26. See also ethics, 164–65
regions Ethiopia, 23
deer. See venison Eucharist, 8–9
Deipnosophistae (Athenaeus), 4 European Union, 37–38, 156, 165–66
Delessert, Benjamin, 23
demi-deuil, 69 fair, 10, 151–52
dessert, 5, 19, 69–75, 138–42, 145–47 famine. See hunger
diabetes, 163 farming. See agriculture
Diderot, Denis, 25 farm subsidy. See PAC (Politique agri-
Dieppe, 13 cole commune)
digestif, 77–78, 162 fast food, 82, 131–32
Dijon, 59, 73 fasting, 9–10, 26, 121–22, 137–39,
dinner, 103–5, 112–15 143–44
discount store, 82 fat, goose and duck, 50–51, 156–57
disguise (in cooking), 15, 19 Father’s Day, 153
distilling, 13, 77–78 fava, 3, 11, 64
dog, 1, 3, 69 feast. See banquet
Dom Perignon, 139 La Femme du boulanger (Pagnol), 32
dragée, 145–46 fennel, 52, 66
duck, 17, 49–51 festival, 150–52
feudalism, 11–14
Easter, 9, 113, 143–44 fig, 3, 6, 59, 70–71
190 Index
fines herbes, 60 garum, 2, 6, 8, 11

Fischler, Claude, 126 Gascony, 13
fish, 2, 5, 6, 11, 13, 51–53, 138, 159 gastronomy, 28–29, 112
fishing, 51–52 gâteau de riz, 62
flammekeuche, 120 gaufrier, 16
flan, 68 Gaul, 5–8, 56
flour, 13, 43 Gaulle, Charles de, 125
foie gras, 50–51, 71, 97, 138, 146, 157 Gauls. See Celts
Font-de-Gaume, 1 Gault, Henri, 97
food fight. See Battle of Fat and Lean gentian, 78
le fooding, 133–34 Germans, 6–8
Ford, Henry, 132 gin, 78
foreign cuisines, 106, 126, 130–31 ginger, 15, 18, 59
fork, 21 gluttony, 9, 25–26, 112
formula (baby), 159 GMO (genetically modified organ-
fouacier, 16 ism), 164–66
fougace, 75 Goa, 18
Fouquet, Nicolas, 20–21 goat, 1, 3, 6, 47, 144
Framboisine, 74 Le Gobeur d’oursins (Picasso), 53
François I, 13 God and gods, 2, 8–9
Franks, 6–8, 10–12 goose, 49–51
French (language), 6, 12 gooseberry, 71
French East India Company, 23 Goscinny, 3
French fries, 63, 120, 135 Goths, 8
French paradox, 157 gougères, 112; recipe, 58
French toast, 111 gourd, 3, 5
frog, 54, 131 gourmandise, 25–26, 29, 112
fromage blanc, 56, 159 goûter. See snack
frozen food, 82–83 grain, 4, 8, 13, 138
fruit, 3, 5, 6, 69–71, 78, 135, 140, Grand-Marnier, 78
156, 159–60; candied, 20, 24, 141; granité, 74
juice, 107, 119, 147, 160 grape, 2–3, 4, 6, 12, 44
funeral, 147 grapefruit, 71
Grasse, 75
Galen, 5, 8 Greeks, 2, 3, 5, 145
galette des Rois, 142 grenadine, 76
Gallo-Romans, 5–8 grilling, 112, 114, 134
game, 11, 70 Grimod de la Reynière, 27–30, 34,
gamelle, 122 47, 99
garbure, 64 Gruyère de Comté, 57
garden (kitchen), 9, 17, 19 Guadeloupe, 23
Gargantua (Rabelais), 48–49 guava, 17
garlic, 3, 19, 60–61, 66; soup, recipe, Guérande peninsula, 58
140 Guérard, Michel, 93
Index 191
guide (restaurant), 28, 97–99, 124–25 hunter-gatherer, 1

Le Guide culinaire (Escoffier), 96 hunting, 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 46
guild, 16, 83–84 hydromel, 11
Guillaume de Tirel (Taillevent), hypertension, 162
14–15
Guinea fowl, 6, 49, 120, 146 ice cream, 70, 74, 118, 135
gurnard, 52 Île de Ré, 58
Gutenberg, Johann, 15 île flottante, 73
immigrant cuisines, 130–31
Les Halles, 57–58, 85 import, 85
Halloween, 152 India, 6, 67, 75
hake, 52 industrialization, 30–31, 33
ham, 4, 48, 65, 160 infusion, 76, 129, 135, 160, 162
hare, 1, 50 inn, 14
haricot, 64, 66 INRA (Institut National de la Recher-
harissa, 61 che Agronomique), 93
harmony, 19, 105, 156–57, 162 INSERM (Institut National de la Santé
harvest, 8, 10 et de la Recherche Médicale), 163
haute cuisine. See cuisine gastronomique Isère, 71
hazelnut, 6, 72 Israel, 85
health, 5, 26–27, 156–57; national, Italy, 18, 61–62, 67, 74
157–58; public, 34, 123, 160–64
heart, 49 jam, 71
hedgehog, 2, 73 jelly, 71
Henri IV, 23 Jerusalem artichoke, 17
herb, 6, 11, 19, 58–60, 75, 78 Jews, 8–9, 43, 49, 50, 61
herbes de Provence, 60 John Dory, 52
heritage: 109–10, 124–26, 150–52, Jordan almond. See dragée
161 Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (Rous-
herring, 53 seau), 26
Hippocrates, 5 juniper berry, 6, 60, 78
holidays, 137–45, 149–50, 152–53
hollandaise, 66–67 kebab. See brochette
honey, 73, 139, 145, 159 kidney, 49
Honfleur, 13 kiwi, 70
hops, 77 knight, 11–12
horse, 1, 3, 12, 46–47
horseradish, 65 lamb, 2, 46, 113, 130, 144
hospital, 12, 13, 122, 158–59 Languedoc, 157
hospitality, 9–10, 12–14, 115 lard, 4, 7, 54
hostel, 14 lardon, 47–48
hot chocolate, 75 Lascaux, 1
house-warming, 149 La Varenne, François Pierre de, 19
hunger, 6, 11, 26 lavender, 60, 71
192 Index
layer cake, 73, 147 market, 85, 150

Lebanon, 62 Marseille, 2, 4, 5, 23, 61, 143
Leclerc, Édouard, 82 Martini, 78
leek, 6, 60 Martinique, 23
Le Havre, 13 marzipan, 23, 139
lemon, 10, 66, 71 Massialot, 22
Lent, 9, 13, 122, 143–44 Massilia. See Marseille
lentil, 1, 3, 64 Mauresque, 77
Le Play, Frédéric, 31 mayonnaise, 52
lettuce, 3, 6, 11, 65–66 McDonald’s, 132
liberalism, 34, 38 meat, 2, 3–5, 8, 13, 45–51, 155–57,
life expectancy, 156–57 159–60, 165–66
Lille, 30 media, 27–28, 99–100, 157
lime, 71 medicine, 13, 76–78, 162
linden, 129, 162 Mediterranean diet, 2, 55, 156
liqueur, 77–78 Mediterranean Sea, 2, 6, 9, 23,
liver, 49; complaint, 161. See also foie 51–54, 59
gras Meilleur Ouvrier de France, 57, 92
Livre des métiers (Étienne Boileau), 16 melon, 70–71, 141
lobster, 53, 146 Menon, 22
Loire River, 52 menu, 27, 128
Lorraine, 18 Mercier, Louis-Sébastien, 26
Lot-et-Garonne, 70 les Mères, 94–95
Louis XIV, 20–23 merguez, 48, 134, 151
Louis XVI, 18 Merovingians, 10–11
Louis XVIII, 27 Le Mesnagier de Paris, 15
lovage, 6 metric system, 28
L.S.R., 19 Mexico, 22
lunch, 103–5, 108–11, 113, 147 Michelin guide, 124–25; star rating
Lune, Pierre de, 19 in, 20, 93, 95, 100
Lyon, 10, 18, 73, 94–95, 120 Middle Ages, 12–16, 23, 121–22, 145
milk, 4, 13, 55–56, 160
mace, 59 millasse, 18
mâche, 66 Millau, Christian, 97
mackerel, 6, 53 miller, 11
madeleine, 129; recipe, 129–30 millet, 10
Maine, 77 mint, 6, 66, 76, 135
maize. See corn miracle, 9; provisionary, 11
malbouffe, 161 mise en place, 20
mallow, 6, 76; marsh, 152 moderation, 9, 11, 25, 111, 157–59,
Malraux, André, 125 162–63
malt, 77 Molière, 21–22
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de, 24 Monaco, 77
marjoram, 60 monastery, 9, 14
Index 193
Monbazillac, 112 nut, 5–7, 9, 61, 71–72, 139, 141, 145

monk, 9, 11, 78 nutmeg, 59
monkfish, 52, 146 nutrition, 156, 161
Mons, Hervé, 57
Morbier, 57 oats, 1, 7, 10, 13
morel, 69 obesity, 162–64
Morocco, 60, 85, 100 De observatione ciborum (Anthimus), 8
Mosella (Ausonius), 8 octopus, 6, 53
Mossa, Gustav-Adolf, 144 Odoacer the Goth, 6
Mother’s Day, 153 oeufs à la neige, 73
mousse au chocolat, 73 offal, 48–49
Mulhouse, 30 oil, 10, 61, 66, 143; olive, 1, 4, 7,
mullet, 52 54–55, 119
Munster, 57 Ojibwa, 18
Muscat, 74, 112 Old Stone Age, 1
mushroom, 69 olive, 2. See also oil, olive
Muslims, 49 omelet, 59, 120
mussel, 53, 120 onion, 3, 19, 60, 115–16
mustard, 6, 11, 59 Opéra, 74
myrtle, 6 Orange, 5
orange, 71, 139
Nantes, 13 orange flower water, 75, 141
Napoléon I, 23, 27–28, 121 orgeat, 76
Napoléon III, 121 oubloyer, 16
nationalism, 35, 109–10, 150 oursinade, 52
natural food, 26, 164–66 oven, 2, 16, 89
nectarine, 70; white, 70 oxen, 3, 12
Netherlands, 22 oyster, 6, 8, 53, 120, 138
New Stone Age, 1–2
New World food, 17–18, 22–23, 67 PAC (Politique agricole commune), 38,
New Year’s, 139, 144–45 156
New Zealand, 70 pain au chocolat, 73
Niaux, 1 pain d’épices, 73, 139
Nice, 62, 66, 118, 121, 143 panaché, 77
Nîmes, 5, 151 pan bagnat, 118
nobility, 14–15 pantner, 14
noodle, 61 papaya, 17
Normandy, 6, 11–12, 54, 77 Paris, 3, 10, 61, 74, 120
Normans, 11–12 Paris-Brest, 74
North Sea, 53 Parmentier, Auguste, 18
nougat, 72, 141 parsley, 6, 6
nouvelle cuisine, 97–98 partridge, 6, 50
Numidia, 6 Pas-de-Calais, 139
nun, 9 pasta, 61–62, 160
194 Index
pasteurization, 55 pistou, 60
pastis, 52, 77–78, 112, 162 pizza, 118, 132
pastry, 25, 69–74, 107, 142; puff, 74 plague, 13
pâtissier, 73–74, 139, 145 plaice, 52
Le pâtissier pittoresque (Carême), 145 pleasure, 25–26, 28–29, 103, 104–5,
Le pâtissier royal parisien (Carême), 110, 112
145 plum, 3, 70–71
patrimony. See heritage polenta, 18, 62
Le Paysan parvenu (Marivaux), 24 pomegranate, 3, 70
pea, 1, 13, 64, 66 Pont-l’Évêque, 57
peach, 6, 70 pope: Eugenius IV, 12; Gregory III,
peanut, 119, 135 46; Leo III, 10; Urban II, 12; Zac-
pear, 3, 6, 59, 70, 120 charias, 47
peasant, 11–13, 32 population, 12
pennyroyal, 6 pork, 2, 4, 13, 47–48, 64, 70; cured
pepper: bell, 17, 67–68; black, 6, 9, (see charcuterie)
15, 17–19, 59; chili, 18; long, 6, portion size, 157, 163
15; Malagueta, 15; white, 59 Portugal, 17
peppercorn, green, 59 potato, 17–18, 63–64
perfume, 6, 75 pot-au-feu, 46, 65, 114–15
Périgord, 69 pottery, 1–2
Pernod, 77 poule-au-pot, 49, 114
perroquet, 78 Pouligny-Saint-Pierre, 56
Persia, 6 poultry, 5, 7, 49–51
persillade, 60 pound cake, 73
Peru, 17 praline, 72, 135
petit-four, 72 prawn, 53
pharmaceutical, 161 precautionary principle, 166
pheasant, 6, 49 pregnancy, 158–59
Phocaeans. See Greeks prehistory, 1–4
phylloxera, 33 preserves, 71
La Physiologie du goût (Brillat-Sava- pressure cooker, 90
rin), 29 printing, 15
Picardie, 139 processed food, 126, 132
Picasso, Pablo, 53 Procope, François, 24
picnic, 134–35 protectionism, 37
pièce montée, 145–47 Proust, Marcel, 129
pig, 1, 3, 69; pigs’ feet, 47–48, 115 Provence, 51, 55, 61–62, 65, 70,
pike, 52 139–42
pilgrim, 9, 14 prune, 70–71
pineapple, 17 pulse, 2, 10, 64
pine nut, 6, 65, 72 pumpkin, 17, 68, 152
pissaladière, 60
pistachio, 6 72 quail, 49
Index 195
quality: of food, 35–37, 125–26, 156– rockfish, 52

57, 165–66; of life, 38, 104–5, Roman Empire, 4–10, 11
156–57, 166 Romans, 3, 145
quatre épices, 59 Rome, 4, 8
quenelle, 52 Roquefort, 56–57
quince, 3, 70–71; paste, 70 rose hips, 162
rosemary, 6, 60
rabbit, 50, 59 rosewater, 62, 75
Rabelais, François, 48–49 rôtisseur, 16
radish, 11, 65 Rouen, 30
raisin, 6, 61, 65, 71 Rouff, Marcel, 124
raspberry, 70–71 rouille, 52
ratatouille, 121; recipe, 68 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 26
rationalization, 132–33 Roussillon, 74
rationing, 156 roux, 20, 97
recipe, 14–15, 87; for aïgo-boulido, rowanberry, 71
140; for blanquette de veau, 113– rue, 6
14; for cabillaud à la portugaise, rye, 1, 7, 10, 13, 62
88; for compote de pommes, 86;
for galettes bretonnes, 62–63; for sabayon, 74
gougères, 58; for madeleines, 129– sacrifice, 2, 8–9, 16
30; for pompe à l’huile, 141–42; for safety (food), 164–66
ratatouille, 68; for soupe à l’oignon, saffron, 6, 52, 59
115–16 sage, 60
De re coquinaria (Apicius), 11 saint, 9, 147; Martin, 144; Nicholas,
refrigerator, 71, 89 139; Sadalberga, 11; Sylvester,
regions, 13, 22, 34–35, 109, 124–26, 144–45
150–52 Saint-Honoré, 74
regulation, 16, 165–66 Saint-Marcellin, 57
Renaissance, 13–17, 67, 145 salad, 3, 65–66, 71
restaurant, 26–27, 30–32, 91–96, salmon, 8, 52, 138
98–100, 117, 119–21, 124–28; salon, 152
chains, 119, 131–32; coupon, salsify, 65
110–11, 123 salt, 19, 58–59, 160
réveillon, 138–41 Salvian of Marseille, 8
Revolution (of 1789), 10, 22, 27, sardine, 53
122, 149 saucier, 14
Rhine River, 6, 8, 10 sauerkraut, 120
rhubarb, 70 sausage, 48, 59, 112, 120, 134
rice, 62, 159. See also wild rice sautéing, 112
rillettes, 48, 112 Savarin, 57
Ritz, César, 121 savory, 60
Robuchon, Joël, 93 Savoy cabbage, 65
rocket, 6, 11, 66 scallop, 6, 53
196 Index
sculpture (sugar), 23, 145 strawberry, 17, 25, 70–71

searing, 112 street food, 16, 118–19
sea urchin, 6, 52–53 suet, 54
semolina, 61, 159 sugar, 15, 22–23, 72–73, 119, 160;
Senderens, Alain, 93 beet, 72, 23–24
Serres, Olivier de, 23 sunchoke. See Jerusalem artichoke
service: à l’assiette, 97; à la française, supermarket, 81–85, 159
20, 28, 30; à la russe, 28; en salle, 96 supper, 104, 115
serviceberry, 6 sustainability, 164
Seven Deadly Sins, 25, 112 Suze, 78
Sévigné, Mme de, 21 sweetbread, 49
shallot, 60 Syria, 70
sheep, 1, 3, 6 syrup, 76, 112, 119
shellfish, 2, 6, 53–54
shopping, 81–85 tabbouleh, 62
shrimp, 53, 71 Tableau de Paris (Mercier), 26
Shrove Tuesday, 143–44 table d’hôte, 26
sickness, 156–57, 159, 161–63, 165 tagine, 46
skate, 52 Taillevent. See Guillaume de Tirel
slave, 4, 23 Talleyrand, 30
smoking, 119 tarragon, 60
snack, 104, 107, 111–12, 147, 163 tart, 65, 70–74, 141; Tatin, 70, 120
snail, 2, 6, 54, 139 tartare, 46–47, 120
snipe, 50 tartine, 71, 107, 111, 119
socca, 118 Tartuffe, ou l’Imposteur (Molière),
socialism, 30 21–22
soda, 76, 119, 160 Taste Site, 125
sole, 52, 120 tavern, 3, 14
sorb apple, 6 Taylor, Frederick, 132
sorbet, 74 tea, 23, 75, 129; shop, 129
soup, 32, 57, 65–66, 71, 115, 121, terroir, 34–35, 98, 125–26
160; recipes, 115–16, 140 testicle, 49
sorrel, 65 Theuderic, 8
Spain, 18, 22, 67, 75 Third Republic, 32–34, 122–23
spelt, 5, 7, 62 thyme, 6, 60
spices, 6, 10, 15, 17–19, 30, 58–60, 139 tomate, 78
spinach, 65, 141 tomato, 17–18, 66–67, 147; recipes,
split pea, 64 68, 88
squab, 49 Tomme de Savoie, 57
squid, 53 tongue, 49
steak-frites, 120, 130 Tour de France gastronomique (Curn-
St. Gall, 10 onsky and Rouff), 124
stockfisch. See under cod tourism, 34–35, 37, 95, 124–25,
stove, 88–89 150–52
Strasbourg, 120; Strasbourg Oath, 11 tourte aux blettes, 65
Index 197
toxoplasmosis, 159 vermouth, 78

traceability, 165–66 Versailles, 21, 23
trade, 4–6, 9, 10, 16, 37–38 Le Viandier (Guillaume de Tirel),
train, 120–21 14–15
transhumance, 1, 150 vichyssoise, 60
transubstantiation, 9 Vienne, 5
Trente glorieuses, 156 Villeneuve, Guillaume de, 16
Trésor gastronomique de la France vinaigrette, 59, 65–66
(Croze and Curnonsky), 125 vinegar, 59
tripe, 49 violet, 75
Troisgros, Michel, 93, 97, 98 Visigoths, 6
trou normand, 78
trout, 8, 52 waffle, 16
Troyes, 6 waiter, 24–25, 96
truffle, 69 walnut, 6, 71
tuna, 6, 52, 118 war: Battle of Fat and Lean, 143–44;
Tunisia, 61 First World War, 121–22; Franco-
turbot, 52 Prussian War, 120, 122; Hundred
Turkey, 23, 85 Years War, 13; Napoleonic Wars,
turkey, 17–18, 49, 138 28, 121; Second World War,
turnip, 5, 11, 65 155–56
water, 2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 44, 76, 158, 162
UCO (Unidentified Comestible Ob- watercress, 65
ject), 126. See also Fischler, Claude watermelon, 71
Uderzo, 3 wedding, 145–47
UHT sterilization, 55 weekend, 113–15
United States, 164–66 Week of Taste, 109–10, 125, 161
urbanization, 30–31 whale, 15
utensil, 3, 89–90, 160 wheat, 1, 2, 4–5, 7, 10–11, 13, 61
whiting, 52
vacation, 104, 162 wild rice, 18
vanilla, 17, 75 wine, 2–5, 8, 10–14, 33–37, 43–45,
VAT (value added tax), 123 71, 119, 128–29, 140, 157–59
Vatel, François, 20–21 women, 86–87, 94–95
Vaux-le-Vicomte, 20–21 woodcock, 50
veal, 46, 113, 165; recipe, 113–14 worker, 31–32
Véfour, 27 World Health Organization, 163
vegetable, 3–5, 26, 65–68, 138, 156, wrasse, 6
160, 162
vegetarian, 45, 134 yogurt, 56, 106, 159, 162
vending machine, 108 young cuisine, 98
venison, 6, 47
Le Ventre de Paris (Zola), 85 Zidi, Claude, 132
verbena, 76 Zola, Émile, 85
Vercingétorix, 5 zucchini, 67–68; recipe, 68
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JULIA ABRAMSON is Associate Professor of French at the University
of Oklahoma, Norman.
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Food Culture in France

Food Culture around the World

The paper used in this book complies with the

Series Foreword vii

For the photographs I am indebted to Philippe Bornier, Hervé Depoil,

51 B.C.E. Julius Caesar annexes Gallic lands to the Empire.

includes 200 oxen, 63 pigs, 1,000 pounds of lard,

1709 An unusually cold winter sets in early and kills crops.

great chef Marie-Antoine Carême is Talleyrand’s

1949 Bread rationing is lifted. The weekly newspaper Le

GREEKS ON THE CÔTE D’AZUR

leader Vercingétorix. A year later, the “three Gauls” or large divisions of

provinces. For vegetables, there were leeks, lettuces, mallow, cucumbers,

FRANKS FROM RHINELAND

Shellfish merchant bringing coastal

in the fourth-century writings of Decimus Agnus Ausonius. His pastoral

Feasting and fasting traditions—extreme eating—reflect the natural

GRAIN AND SWORDS

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STREET FOOD

NEW WORLD FOODS

The late seventeenth-century cookbooks reflect the preference for

COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, TEA, AND SUGAR

France, where the aristocracy considered the drink an aphrodisiac. Coffee

Little escapes the watchful eye of the

intellectual as well as a sensual experience, the bodily necessity of eating

designated a “restorative” soup or bouillon made from meat or fowl that

COMFORT, QUALITY, AND ENJOYMENT

régimes—political, social, and dietary. He was a private chef in the old

beginning in the 1830s. Restaurants, at this juncture, like the taverns

OLD WAYS AND NEW

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND AUTHENTICITY

TERROIR AND CONTROLLED DENOMINATION OF ORIGIN

applied themselves to strategically developing grands crus or distinguished

Village appellation red burgundy from the Côte de

chicken) and beurre d’Isigny-Sainte-Mère (Isigny-Sainte-Mère butter), to

FRANCE AND EUROPE

states of the European Union. This has led, on occasion, to conflicts of

9. Martin Breugel, “A Bourgeois Good? Sugar, Norms of Consumption and

An astounding variety of foods are eaten in France. This is due to the

Buying a baguette at the boulangerie Au

Historical, economic, and religious signifi-

Beef and Veal

Lamb, Horse, Venison, and Goat

Zaccharias in 751, forbade eating horsemeat. Their interdictions affected

Pork and Charcuterie

Poultry and Rabbit

perdrix (partridge), bécasse (woodcock), and bécassine (snipe) are consid-

Foie gras and Confit d’oie

or water is added, followed by several kinds of fish and shellfish. Rascasse

BUTTER AND OIL

flavor. It is used in cooking and is indispensable in pastry making. Butter

MILK, CREAM, FRESH CHEESE, AND YOGURT

Master cheese maker and affineur (specialist in aging

Burgundian Baked Cheese Puffs (Gougères)

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

HERBS, SPICES, AND CONDIMENTS FOR SAVORY COOKING

and Mediterranean salt comes from Aigues-Mortes. Historically, salt was

Carvi (caraway seed), associated with German and Scandinavian

ONIONS, GARLIC, SHALLOTS, AND LEEKS

Braised leeks accompany poached fish. Courtesy of

GRAINS, PASTA, RICE, AND POTATOES

with nuts, raisins, and flavorings such as rosewater is a festive dessert.

Breton Buckwheat Crêpes (Galettes bretonnes or galettes de sarrasin)